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HISTORY 



OF 



SOUTHOLD, L. I. 



ITS FIRST CENTURY. 



BY THE 



REV. EPHER WHITAKER, D. D., 



Pastor of the First Church of Southold, Councilor of the Long Island 

Historical Society, Corresponding Member of the New 

York Genealogical and Biographical Society, etc, 



SOUTHOLD: 

Printed for the Author. 
1881. 




^ t^^" 



COPYRIGHT BY 

EPHER WHITAKER. 

1881, 



PRESS OF THE ORANGE CHRONICLE,, 
ORANGE, N. J, 




O 

30 



TO 

MR. THOMAS R. TROWBRIDGE 

AND 

MR. WILLIAM H. H. MOORE, 

WHO MAY SEVERALLY REPRESENT THE PLACES OF THEIR 
BIRTH, THE CENTRAL CITY AND THE REMOTEST 
TOWN OF ^ 

THE NEW HAVEN COLONY, 

AND WHOSE APPRECIATION AND GENEROSITY HAVE CHEERED 
THE PREPARATION OF THIS VOLUME, IT IS MOST 
• RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY 
DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 

The acquisition of the greater part of the 
knowledge contained in this vohime has re- 
sulted Trom the duties and necessities of the 
Christian ministry in the pastoral care of the 
First' Church of Southold for the last thirty 
years. The preparation of the book for the 
press has been the rest and recreation of many 
a weary hour during most of this ministry. 
Various hindrances have resisted the accom- 
plishment of the undertaking, and caused a 
less orderly arrangement of the materials of 
the work, as well as a less vigorous and at- 
tra6tive style, than could be desired; but the 
belief is cherished, that the imperfections of 
the book, however clearly seen by the reader, 
and deeply felt by the writer, should not for- 
bid its publication. For it is highly desirable, 
that the early life and worth — the purpose. 



VI HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

spirit, circumstances, deeds and sufferings — 
in a word, the History of the people of this 
Town should be so presented, that its main 
features, at least, may be easily known from 
generation to generation. The field on which 
labor for this end has been expended is the 
Past ; but the harvest desired is for the Future. 
The work aims to supply the wants of poster- 
ity not less than to satisfy the requirements 
of the present time. He who plants a tree 
that will yield good fruit after the sod has cov- 
ered him, may render an acceptable service 
to many, even though not one of his own gen- 
eration profits by his care and forethought for 
the welfare and comfort of his successors ; 
and he who provides the means which will 
contribute to gratify the wholesome desires 
and supply the mental and moral wants of 
those who shall live in coming years, may 
perhaps not labor in vain. It is altogether 
fit, that the Christian minister should look 
forward. The obje61:s of his chief thought 
and concern have the closest relations to the 
endless Future ; and it is most reasonable, 
that he should take the liveliest interest in the 
wants, the prosperity, the comfort, the virtue 
and the piety of the generations to come. 



PREFACE. Vll 

These motives have produced this book. 
Some parts of it may be found in two Papers, 
prepared by invitation of the Long Island His- 
torical Society, and read in its meetings, re- 
spectively on " The First Church of Southold," 
and on '' The First Pastor of Southold ; " and 
in a Paper, prepared by invitation of the New 
Haven Colony Historical Society, and read 
before it, on '' The Early History of Southold." 
The latter is printed in the Second Volume of 
the Society's Papers. 

The subj eel- matter of this History has been 
drawn from so many sources, both original 
and secondary, that it is impossible to name 
them all. Many of them are indicated in the 
successive chapters ; and it is believed, that 
the statements based upon them, are in a 
high degree trustworthy. 

Special acknowledgments, justly due, are 
hereby gratefully tendered, to Mr. George 
Hannah, Librarian of the Long Island Histor- 
ical Society, and hiK Assistants ; to the Rev. 
Addison C. V. Schenck, of the Presbyterian 
Historical Society ; and to Mr. Frederick 
Saunders, of the Astor Library, for the ut- 
most courtesy and kindness. Thanks are also 
due, and gratefully tendered, to the Rev. 



viii HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

William F. Whitaker, Pastor of the St. Cloud 
Presbyterian Church, Orange, New Jersey, 
for his generous aid In conducing the volume 
through the press. 

It is hoped that the book will be all the 
more acceptable by reason of its several en- 
gravings, which are in the highest degree ef- 
fe6live as illustrations. 

There are abundant materials at hand for 
an interesting History of the Second Century 
of Southold ; but whether a second volume 
shall be prepared for the press, time must 
determine. E. W. 

Southold, July 2, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I.— 1640-1672. 



CHAPTER I, 



The attra(ftion of historic sources— First Christian In- 
stitutions in America— The Rev. John Youngs comes to 
Southold, L. I. — His former home in Suffolk County, 
England— Not Southolt in Hoxne Hundred— Letter from 
the Rev. Re^or Frederick French— Letter from the Rev. 
Diocesan Registrar Bonsly— Southwold in Blything 
Hundred— Youngses in that neighborhood— Rev. John 
Youngs at Salem, Mass.— His sojourn at New Haven- 
He comes to Southold— Here he gathers his church 
anew, 0€\. 21, 1640— The fanciful story of thirteen orig- 
inal settlers— Barnabas Horton— William Wells— William 
Hallock— John and Henry Tuthill— Thomas Mapes— 
William Furrier, John Cooper and Edmond Farrington — 
Matthias Corwin— Robert Akerly— Jacob Corey— John 



1 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Conklin — Isaac Arnold — Thomas Moore — Capt. John 
Underhill — Barnabas Wines — JohnBudd — Purchase from 
the Indians by the New Haven Government, August, 
1640 — Lease from James Farrett to Matthew Sunderland, 
June, 1639 — Deed from Lord Sterling's agent to Richard 
Jackson, August 15, 1640 — Planting of Southold, South- 
ampton, New Haven — Purchase of Indian titles by Eng- 
lishmen in New England — In Plymouth, Wethersfield, 
Hartford, New Haven, New York — On Long Island in 
Southold, Southampton, Jamaica — Southold the first 
Town settled on Long Island — Older than Southampton 
in all essential points — Hon. Henry A. Reeves's state- 
ment — Southold's Indian name — Its early " freeholders 
and inhabitants " — Characfter and work of the early set- 
tlers — Their names — Their religious life — Some remove 
to other places — Thomas Baker, Jeremiah Meacham and 
George Miller to Easthampton — John Tucker, William 
Pauley, John Budd, Arthur Smyth, Robert Akerly and 
John Frost to Brookhaven — Capt. John Underhill to 
Oyster Bay — Letter from hmi — His wife's sister, Han- 
nah Feke, marries John Bowne— Thomas Stevenson 
moves to Newtown — Thomas Benedi<fl; to Huntington, 
to Jamaica, and lastly to Norwalk, Conn. — John Bayley 
to Jamaica, and perhaps to Elizabeth, N. J. — William 
Cramer, John Dickerson. John Haines, William John- 
son, Jeffrey Jones, Evan Salisbury. Barnabas Wines, Jr., 
and Thomas Youngs to Elizabeth, N. J. — Eminent de- 
scendants of the early settlers — Youngses, Wellses, Hor- 
tons, Dickinsons, Wineses — Letter from the Rev. Dr. E. 
C. Wines — Corwins, Swezeys, Sewards — Some of the 
early inhabitants restless — Most and best planted for Re- 
ligion — Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon's statement — Southold's 
first church and cemetery — Southold's choice of the 
New Haven Jurisdicftion — Southampton and Easthamp- 
ton join Connecfticut — Southold's purpose — Determina- 
tion to maintain its rights — Injuries to the Puritans 



CONTENTS. 3 

threatened — Puritans often reproached and slandered— 
Imaginary code of "Blue Laws" — Falsehoods of the 
Rev. Samuel Peters— Southold's love for freedom, vir- 
tue, piety — Hardships and toils of the settlers — Their be- 
neficent labors for posterity— The Puritans the authors 
of civil and religious freedom in England and America- 
Constitution of the New Haven Towns— New Haven 
united to Conneaicut in 1665— Removal of Branford to 
Newark, N. J.— Rev. John Davenport from New Haven 
to Boston— Early laws of the Jurisdiction— Times of the 
planting— Thirty years' war— Spain loses Brazil— Makes 
acquisitions in Italy— Persecution of Galileo— Scientific 
discoveries— Fruitfulness in Literature and Art— Ad- 
vance m statesmanship— Progress in Civilization— Great 
changes in England— Eminent writers— Age of enter- 
prise—Maritime adivity and exploration— England a 
swarming hive Page 17-78 



CHAPTER II. 

Southold's choice of its site— Features of the place- 
Increase of the inhabitants— Allotment of lands— Home- 
lots of the chief men, Rev. John Youngs, William Wells, 
Barnabas Horton, John Budd, Capt. John Underbill, 
Thomas Mapes. Barnabas Wines, Thomas Terry, Phile- 
mon Dickerson, Thomas Moore, Benjamin Moore, Hen- 
ry Case, Charles Glover, Joseph Youngs, Col. Isaac Ar- 
nold, Col John Youngs— Chief men of the second gener- 
ation. Col. Arnold and Col. John Youngs— Town Rec- 
ords before 1651 lost— Earliest history fragmentary- 
Life and local legislation of the place— Division and al- 
lotment of Calves' Neck, 1658— Firing of woods to im- 
prove pasture— Proteaion against burning of buildings- 
Regulations for watching and warding— For keeping 



4 FIISTORY OF SOUTIIOLD. 

records — For colIe(i:l;ing taxes — For assigning seats in 
the Meeting House according to rank, age, office, &c. — 
For making vice and crime pay expenses — For keeping 
Town streets in good condition — For tlie wharf at the 
Head of the Harbor — For pasturing cattle — For building 
a wind mill on Pine Neck — Adjustment of boundaries 
with Southampton — Sale of a vessel — Price of grain and 
provisions — Bequest of children — Laws for boats, canoes, 
skiffs — For prohibiting sale of dogs, rum and arms to 
Indians — For paying premiums to destroyers of wolves, 
lUxes and other " varment " — Ele(^"lion of Sele(flmen — 
Conditions of selling real estate — Mildness of the crim- 
inal code — Superiority to old abuses— The Bible the gen- 
eral law — Less than twenty crimes punished by death 
here instead of hundreds in England — Popular knowl- 
edge of the general law— Bill of Rights — Provisions for 
public education — For public worship — Penalties for 
disturbing it — Convi(fl;ion and punishment of Humphrey 
Norton — Sales of property must be recorded — Registry 
of births, marriages and deaths — Records open to inspec- 
tion and transcript — All legal proceedings to be put on 
record — Distribution of property among heirs — Two 
causes for divorce — Justice and kindness towards the sav- 
ages — Hostilities and suffering from national wars — Mil- 
itary regulations — Burdens of the people born for oth- 
ers — Attempts to invade their liberties — Charafler of 
Charles II. — Character of the first settler and pastor of 
Southold — His death and that of William Wells — The 
first pastor's grave — Inscription on his tomb-stone — In- 
ventory on his property — Order of administration to his 
widow — His children-^His theology— Monuments of 
early settlers, Youngs, Horton, Wells, Dickinson, Conk- 
lin, and others — The original cemetery — Site of the first 
Meeting House — Stru(51:ure of this building — Its various 
uses — Its hallowed associations. . . Page 81-126 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 



Wars and governmental changes— New Haven united 
to Conne6licut — Connecticut's Committee in Southold 
June 1664— Col. Richard Nicholl subdues the Dutch of 
New Amsterdam, 1664— Claims Long Island for the 
Duke of York — Southold and Southampton protest, but 
submit— Order for the Towns to ele6l deputies— South- 
old eleas William Wells, Esq., and Col. John Youngs- 
Petition of the Town to Col. Nicholl— Deputies of all 
the Long Island Towns meet in Hempstead, March 
1665— The Duke's Laws imposed— Formation of York- 
shire—Suffolk County its East Riding— Southold's dis- 
satisfaaion— Charader of the Duke of York— Union of 
the East End Towns in 1672 to maintain their rights- 
Measures that oppressed them— Their protest burned 
by the Governor and Council— New troubles — Conquest 
by the Dutch, July 1673— The East End summoned to 
submit— These Towns ask Connedicut for protedion- 
Their appeal to the king in Council, especially in con- 
sideration of their whaling trade- Petition of the East 
End to the Dutch Gov. Colve, August 14, 1673— Reply 
to the petition— Features of the petition and reply— 
Conneaicut gives notice to the Dutch that the United 
Colonies of New England will protea Long Island east 
of Oyster Bay— The Dutch appoint officers for Suffolk 
County— Col. Isaac Arnold of Southold appointed chief 
officer of the County— The Dutch require an oath of fi- 
delity—The Dutch Governor sends Commissioners— 
They visit all the Towns— None willing to take the 
oath— Southold had already, September 29, assigned rea- 
sons against it— Southampton, Oa. i, follows Southold ; 
Easthampton, Oa. 2; Setauket Oa. 4; and Huntington, 
oa. 6— The Commissioners report to the Governor, Oa. 
20 — Answers of the Towns to the Dutch demand — The 
I 



6 HISTORY OF SOUTH OLD. 

Dutch send no force, but a second Commission — Hunt- 
ington and Setauket yield, 061. 28 — Most worthy Com- 
missioners sent to the East End and important abate- 
ments made — Adventures of these Commissioners — They 
meet on the v^oyage Connecticut Commissioners^Both 
come to Southold — Their reception here — Their proceed- 
ings in this place — The difficulties of the Dutch Com- 
missioners — They determine not to vnsit the other 
Towns — They return to New Amsterdam and report — 
The Dutch Governor's bold letter to Connecticut — 
Treaty of peace between the Dutch and English nations 
signed Feb. 9. 1674 — New Amsterdam surrendered to the 
English Nov. 10, 1674 — Southold thus subje(ft again to 
the Duke of York — He becomes king in 1685 and his 
Province royal — Religion and liberty maintained here 
through all these changes — Possessions of the people 
here — Their trades and occupations — Their household 
furniture and style of living, food, dress, &c. — Their so- 
cial and kindly disposition — Their hardships and sick- 
nesses — Their burial of the dead in tenderness, sobriety 
and seriousness without funeral solemnities — Their pub- 
lic and household worship. . . . Page 129-164 



PART II.— 1674-1717. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The second pastor, Rev, Joshua Hobart— His ances- 
try—His father, Rev. Peter Hobart, in England, in 
America, at Hingham, Mass.— Rev. Peter Hobarfs sons 
in the ministry— Letter from the Hon. Solomoa Liacoln, 



CONTENTS. 7 

historian of Hingham — His memorandum — Charles B. 
Moore's account of the second pastor before his settle- 
ment in Southold — The Town's arrangements after the 
first pastor's death to obtain a Minister— Their provision 
for the Rev. Joshua Hobart in lands, dwelling., salary, 
May 22, 1674 — Increase of his salary from ^80 to ^100, 
May 13. 1678 — Thegreatness of his settlement and salary 
—Payments of his salary— Respective parts paid by the 
East End and the West End of the Town— Letters from 
him to the Town Meeting April 3. 1685— His request for an 
exchange of lands granted — The beautiful site ot his dwel- 
ling — He sells the place to the Town in 1701 — After his 
death the home of his successors, the Rev. Messrs. Ben- 
jamin Woolsey, James Davenport. William Throop and 
John Storrs— Tax payers at his settlement— Comparative 
value of their property. . . . Page 167-187 



CHAPTER V. 

Another attempt to rejoin Connecflicut — Adion of the 
Town, Nov. 17, 1674— Rev. Mr. Hobart and Mr. Thomas 
Hutchinson chosen with power — Cause of this a6lion — 
Sylvester Salisbury sent hither by Sir Edmund Andros, 
the oppressive Governor of New York and of Massachu- 
setts — Salisbury's notice to the Town — The Duke of 
York's acknowledgment of its redu<flion to obedience by 
Andros — Southold's last vain effort to rejoin Connecti- 
cut, June, 1689 — Events abroad — Changes in England — 
Condition of New England — Indian wars — Great mor- 
tality — Southold appoints Richard Benjamin to be grave 
digger — Benjamin Youngs chosen Recorder in 1674, to 
succeed Richard Terry, chosen in 1662 to succeed Wil- 
liam Welles, the first Recorder — The Town accepts a Pat- 
ent from Gov. Andros — The Patent carefully drawn — 
The Patentees convey their patent rights to the Free- 



8 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

holders Inhabitants of the Town — No change of the re- 
ligious liberties of the people — Gradual enlargement of 
the territor)^ of the Town by purchase from the sava- 
ges- — Indian Deed for the whole territory of the Town — 
Town Patent-Deed of the Patentees to the Freeholders 
Inhabitants — Law for the incorporation of the Common- 
ers — Amendment thereto — The second pastor promi- 
nent in civil, industrial and medical affairs — The first 
medical pradlitioner — Privileges granted to the chief 
men — A new Meeting House built in 1684 — The old 
House made a County Prison — The Horton house en- 
larged for a County Court House — Picflure of the Hor- 
ton house — The site of the former church edifices — 
Changes indicated by the tax list of 1683 — Names that 
disappeared between 1675 and 1683 — New names — Com- 
parative permanence of family names — The rich more 
enduring than the poor — Purchase of John Herbert's 
land in 1697 for the use of the Minister — John Herbert 
and his father John Herbert— He makes in 1699 a deed 
for the land on which stand the present Church and par- 
sonage — This land in the hands of the Trustees of the 
First Church by virtue of their incorporation in 1784 — 
Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu, a member of the Southold 
Church, probably the author of the State law for their 
incorporation — Provisions of the law — Election of the 
first Board — Certificate of incorporation — The earliest on 
Long Island — The attesting Judge, Thomas Youngs, of 
Southold — The Board perpetual — The property used for 
its proper purposes — Gallery built in the east end of the 
Meeting House in 1699; •" the west end in 1700 — Car- 
penters' bills — Bills for care of the Meeting House — The 
Town's purchase of the pastor's homestead in 1701 — 
Probable reasons therefor — This house repaired in 1702 — 
Puritans in the Province compelled to be cautious — 
Lord Cornbury's government — Attempt to establish the 
Episcopal church — Trinity church. New York, opened in 



CONTENTS. 9 

1697 — Obtains the King's farm in 1703 — Infamous op- 
pression of the Presbyterians in Jamaica by Gov. Corn- 
bury — He repays good with evil — Seizes the property of 
Presbyterians— Imprisons their Ministers — His shame- 
ful profligacy and imprisonment — His father dies, and he 
becomes an English Peer, a member of the House of 
Lords — Better government under Hunter — Southold 
builds a new Meeting House — The roof unsatisfadlory — 
*'A flatter roof " ordered in 1711 — The people increase 
and spread east and west — New houses of worship desir- 
ed at Mattituck and Orient — Supply of Ministers increas- 
ing — James Reeve gives land in Mattituck about 1715 
for the site of a Meeting House and Burying Ground — 
Rev. Joseph Lamb ordained Minister — David Youngs 
gives, January i, 1818, a deed for the site of a Meeting 
House in Orient — The building ere(fled in 1718 and 1719 — 
Amid these changes the Rev. Joshua Hobart dies, Feb. 
28, 17 1 7 — The Town orders his tomb-stone — Accounts 
rendered for building his tomb with stone lime — Com- 
mon lime then made of burnt shells — Inscription on his 
tomb-stone — The poetic part by the Rev. Mather 
Byles, D. D., of Boston — Rev. Dr. Byles — Copy of the 
Inscription — The grave of the Pastor's wife near his 
own — Their descendants unknown. . . Page 191-245 



PART III.— 1720-1736. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Third Pastor, Rev. Benjamin Woolsey — Relation of 
Yarmouth. England, to Southold— Mr. Woolsey's ances- 
try—Their relations to Rev. Dr. Ames, Rev. Messrs. 
Hugh Peters, of Salem, Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, 



lO HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

and others — Some of them come to Salem — Mr. Wool- 
sey's grandfather becomes a resident of New York — 
Moves to Jamaica — Chosen Town Clerk, 1673 — Mr 
Woolsey's father, George, Jr., becomes prominent in Ja- 
maica — George Woolsey, 3d, moves to Pennington, New 
Jersey — His descendants there — Our third Pastor born 
in Jamaica — His education at Yale College — His mar- 
riage — Early years of his Ministry in various places — 
Complaint against Gov. Hunter for allowing him to 
preach in the Episcopal church, Hopewell, N. J. — His 
installation in Southold, July, 1720 — Fruits of his Minis- 
try — Rev. Abner Reeve — His education at Yale — His 
Ministry — His sons. Rev. Ezra Reeve and Judge Tap- 
ping Reeve — Rev. Simon Horton— His education at 
Yale — His Ministry in Newtown, L. I. and elsewhere — 
Rev. Azariah Horton — His education at Yale — Mission- 
ary to the Indians — His mother Mary (Tuthill) Horton 
and her family — His relations to the Edinburgh " Socie- 
ty for Propagating Christian Knowledge " -- Extradls 
from the Minutes of this Society— His Journals — His 
preparation of the Indians for the Rev. David Brainerd 
at Easton, Pa. — His complaints against "the Sepa- 
rates " — He becomes the first Pastor of Madison, N. J. — 
His death— His grave and epitaph — His descendants — 
Judge Thomas Youngs — His education at Yale — His 
civil and judicial services — His death — His ancestry — 
His marriage — His home — His large possessions of 
land — His son Thomas — His later posterity — Rev. David 
Youngs — His education at Yale — His pastorate at Brook- 
Haven — His death — Migration from Southold — To Ches- 
ter, N. J., for example — Historic sketch of that place — 
Public worship in Orient — Mattituck Church organized, 
171 5 — Its first pastor. Rev. Joseph Lamb— His removal 
to Basking Ridge, N. J. — His rela-tions to the Hon. Hen- 
ry Southard — a Long Islander — to Hon. Samuel 
L. Southard— Historical sketch of Basking Ridge— 



CONTENTS. I I 

Changes produced by the formation of the Mattituck 
Church and public worship there and in Orient — The 
Town Meeting in 1720 votes to divide the parish lands 
that each Minister may improve the same in proportion 
according to the first purchase — Time unknown when 
the Town ceased to pay the Minister's salary — No means 
of warming the church in winter — Isaac Conklin per- 
mitted in 1722 to build on the Town-lot a convenience- 
house, in which persons attending public worship may 
warm themselves before and after the divine service in 
the church — The first Meeting House, used as a prison 
from 1683 to 1727, ordered to be sold — The Courts met 
in Southold and Southampton during these years and 
afterwards in Riverhead. . . . Page 249-282 



PART I\.— 1736-1740. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Rev. Benjamin Woolsey moves to Dosoris — Descrip- 
tion of that place — His Ministn'^ for twenty years while 
living there — He preaches at his own house — His gener- 
ous hospitality — He supplies Hempstead — His gratui- 
tous services — His devotion to his sacred duties — His 
death, August 15, 1756— His character and attainments — 
His style of preaching — His conspicuous virtues — His 
excellence in all the relations of home life and of socie- 
ty — Visit to his former home — Part of his residence now 
standing — Place of his burial with his father and many 
of his kindred — Inscription on his tomb-stone — Geneal- 
ogy of his descendants — Many of them greatly distin- 
guished — His son, M. T. Woolsey — His grand-son, M. L. 
Woolsey — Letter from Henry Lloyd relating to the mar- 



12 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

riages of John Llo3^d and Sarah Woolsey — M. T. Wool- 
sey's daughter Rebekah marries James Hillhouse — 
James Hillhouse and his descendants — M. L. Woolsey's 
services in the Revolutionary War and thereafter — His 
marriage, and connections thereby — His son M. T, 
Woolsey in the U. S. Navy — Our third Pastor's second 
son, Benjamin — His education at Yale — His marriages — 
His children — Their conne(5lions and posterity — Rev. 
Timothy Dwight, D. D., President of Yale College — 
William W. Woolsey — His daughter Elizabeth, mother 
of Major Theodore Winthrop — His son John M. Wool- 
sey, father of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, " Susan Cool- 
idge " — Our third pastor's great grandson, Theodore 
Dwight Woolsey, D. D., LL. D., President of Yale Col- 
lege, son of W. VV. Woolsey — President Woolsey's son 
Theodore S. Woolsey, Professor of International Law in 
Yale College — Rev. Benjamin Woolsey's granddaughter 
Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin, marries William Dun- 
lap, the artist — Other descendants in the female lines, 
Lt. Gov. John Broome, Chancellor William T. McCoun, 
Rear Admiral S. L. Breese ; Hon. Sidney Breese, Chief 
Justice of Illinois, U. S. Senator; Sarah Elizabeth Gris- 
vvold, wife of Prof. Morse, Inventor of the Telegraph ; 
Arthur Breese, U. S. .Navy; Mary Welles Davenport, 
wife of James Boorman ; George Welles McClure, U. S. 
Army ; Henry Welles, Judge of N. Y. Supreme Court ; 
Abigail Woolsey Welles, wife of the Rev. Dr. Henr}' G. 
Ludlow and mother of the well known authors Fitszhugh 
Ludlow and Helen W. Ludlow — Rev. James Davenport 
becomes Pastor of Southold after Mr. Woolsey's resig- 
nation — His ancestry — His birth in Stamford, Conn. — 
His education at Yale — His studies for the Ministry — 
His ill health — His Ministry in Southold, 1738-1739 — His 
call in 1738 to Maidenhead and Hopewell, N. J. — His 
preference for Southold — His remarkable career in the 
erratic period of his Ministry — His excellent character 



CONTENTS. 13 

in his latest years — His death in Hopewell, N. J. — Visit 
to the place of his burial — Description of the scene — 
Inscription on his tomb-stone — Grave of his wife — In- 
scription on her tomb-stone — Their children — Ministry 
of his son, the Rev. John Davenport — Southold's civil 
relations in the later periods of its First Century — Gov- 
ernors of the Province — Members of the Assembly from 
Suffolk — The County Judges — The County Surrogates — 
The County Sheriffs — The County Clerks — Shelter Isl- 
and ceases in 1730 to continue a part of Southold Town — 
Names of its twenty voters — Meeting House built on 
Shelter Island in 1733 for a Presbyterian Church— The 
congregation incorporated April 26, 1785 — Names of the 
Trustees— The church organized in 1808— Brindley Syl- 
vester of Shelter Island — His Chaplain, William Adams — 
Mr. Sylvester's dwelling, built in 1737, now the summer 
residence of Prof. E. N. Horsford— Mrs. Horsford's kin- 
dred — Purchases on the Island by William Nicholl and 
George Havens — The Supervisorship becomes in 1694 
the chief civil office of the Towns in the State of New 
York — Names of Southold's Supervisors in the last 
half of its First Century — Condition and character of 
the people at the close of the First Century of the 
Town Page 285-327 



PART I. 

PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. JOHN YOUNGS. 

I 6 40- I 6 7 2. 



1 8 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

The origin, direcllon and character of the 
smallest streams are full of interest to every 
man who would thoroughly understand the 
life and wealth which the broader and deeper 
river of our national and Christian history now 
bears and carries forward upon its ample and 
generous bosom. 

It may be superfluous to remark, that the 
history of permanent Christian institutions, in 
this country, before the close of a third of the 
seventeenth century, presents only 

" The baby figures of the giant mass 
Of things to come at large." 

It is at this point that we come upon a re- 
cord which dire6lly pertains to the early his- 
tory of Southold, Long Island. It is in these 
words : 

*'The examination of John Yonge, of St. 
Margaretts, Suff, minister aged 35 years and 
Joan his wife aged 34 yeares with 6 children 
John, Thomas, Anne, Rachel, Marey and Jo- 
seph are desirous to passe fo Salam in N 
England to inhabit 

**This man was forbyden passage by the 
commissioners and went not from Yarmouth." 



JOHN YOUNGS MIGRATES. 1 9 

For this record of the royal Commissioners 
of Emigration, see Massachusetts Hist. So- 
ciety's Col. — Fourth Series, vol. t., page loi. 

This is a record of 1633, if the record cor- 
re6lly gives his age 35 years, and if he was 
74 years of age at his death in 1672, as the in- 
scription on his tombstone relates. But in 
the '' Indexes of Southold," by Charles B. 
Moore, Esq., it is held, that Mr. Youngs's at- 
tempt to emigrate from Yarmouth occurred 
May II, 1637, ^s stated in the copy of the Eng- 
lish Record made for Mr. Savage. The Com- 
missioners of Emigration were appointed, it 
is believed, in 1634. See the New York Ge- 
nealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 4, p. 
16. The minister, whose passage from Yar- 
mouth to Salem the Commissioners forbade 
only a few years after the organization of the 
earliest church in New^ England, seems to 
have had no desire to return to St. Margaret's 
in Suffolk. 

But where was this St. Margaret's ? For 
there were more than one St. Margaret's in 
Suffolk. We should perhaps most naturally 
refer this record to St. Margaret's of Southolt 
in the Hundred of Hoxne, Suffolk. The name 



20 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

of the place is printed Southold in Camden. 
In Lewis's Topographical Didlionary of Eng- 
land, fifth edition, 1842, it is described as fol- 
lows : "SOUTHOLT, (St. Margaret) a par- 
ish in the union and hundred of Hoxne, E. 
Division of the County of Suffolk, 5 miles 
(S. E. by S.) from Eye; containing 211 in- 
habitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, 
endowed with the great tithes, and annexed 
to the re61ory of Worlingworth : the tithes 
have been commuted to a rent-charge of 
^237.10. A school is supported out of the 
rents of town lands, the proceeds of which, 
amounting to about ^100 per annum, are ap- 
plied to the repairs of the church, and to the 
general purposes of the parish." Investiga- 
tion seems to show, that Mr. Youngs never 
had charge of this church and parish. In re- 
ply to a letter making inquiry as to Mr. 
Youngs's incumbency of this St. Margaret's, 
previous to his emigration to this country, the 
Reverend Redlor of Worlingworth most cour- 
teously gave the following evidence, that Mr. 
Youngs was not at any time during the sev- 
enteenth century an incumbent of that parish : 



SOUTHOLT, SUFFOLK. 21 

'' Worlingworth Re61ory, 

Wickham Market, 
Suffolk, February, i8, 1879.^ 
Dear Sir : — I have been waiting for an an- 
swer, which I enclose, from the Bishop of 
Norwich's Registrar (Mr. Bonsly) as to the 
names of the Incumbents at the time you 
mention. I am sorry to say Mr. Youngs's 
name does not appear. Yet St. Margaret's 
and Southolt — spelt in Camden Southold — 
are certainly curious coincidences to say the 
least. Trusting you will excuse my long de- 
lay, I am, Dear Sir, respedlfully, 

Fred. French, 
Reclor of Worlingworth and Southolt, Suffolk. 
To the Rev. Epher Whitaker, 

Southold, Suffolk Co., 

New York, U. S. A." 
The Rev. Re6lor's letter from the Rev. W. 
T. Bonsly, the Registrar of the Diocese of 
Norwich, Is this : 

'.' Diocesan Registry, Norwich, 1 
17 February, 1879. J 
Dear Sir : — The question In your letter of 
the 4th Inst, whether the Rev. John Youngs 
was Re6lor of Southold or South (w) old ^ 
^ ^ ^ is easily answered In 

the negative. ^^ ^^ ^ 

I have referred to Dr. Tanner's list of In- 
cumbents of Worllng-worth with Southolt. It 
does not contain the name of John Young, 



2 2 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

The Incumbents, mentioned by him, in the 
17th century, are 

Miles Spencer 
1623 Philip Tynck 

llckle turned out 1643. 
1 66 1 Hugh Roberts 
1666 John Ward 
1673 Thos. Colman. 
I return Mr. Whitaker's letter. 

Yours faithfully, 

W. T. RONSLV. 

The Revd. F. French." 

There Is another St. Margaret's in Suffolk 
in the Hundred of Wangford. It is about 
midway between Halesworth and Bungay, and 
some six miles from each. It is St. Marea- 
ret's Ilketshall. But nothinof has been found 
to show that the Rev. John Youngs was ever 
the minister of that place. Thomas Young, 
the teacher of John Milton, was from 1630 to 
1655 the re6lor of Stow-Market, a large bor- 
ough and polling place in the central part of 
Suffolk County, on the line of the railroad 
from London by way of Ipswich and Norwich 
to Yarmouth. It Is most likely that our first 
pastor was conne(51:ed in some way with St. 
Margaret's in the village of Reydon, near the 
sea-coast, and in the Hundred of Blything. 



SOUTH\VOLD, SUFFOLK. 23 

Wangford is on the great post-road between 
Ipswich and Yarmouth, and Southwold Is on 
the shore of the sea about five or six miles 
southeast of Wangford. Reydon Is about mid- 
way between these two places. An Important 
letter recently sent from New Jersey and plain- 
ly dlre61ed to Southold, Suffolk County, Long 
Island, reached its destination In twenty-one 
days with the postmarks of both Wangford 
and Southwold, England, upon It. In some 
books and maps published In the seventeenth 
century, and found In the Presbyterian His- 
torical Society's Library in Philadelphia, South- 
wold, England, is printed ''Southould" and 
'' Sowolde." On an eminence in Southwold, 
so as to look out upon the North Sea, a fine 
church edifice was built in 1460 and dedicated 
to St. Edmunds. This was a chapel annexed 
to the vicarage of Reydon, and the curate of 
this chapel was appointed by the vicar of 
Reydon, who from 161 1 to his death In 1626 
was the Rev. Christopher Young. His suc- 
cessor, appointed the next year, was the Rev. 
John Goldsmith. From this neighborhood It 
is highly probable that Christopher Youngs 
of Massachusetts came to America, and to this 
St. Margaret's of Reydon it may be supposed 



24 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

that the Rev. John Youngs belonged when he 
purposed to cross the ocean for Salem In New 
England to Inhabit. He may have ministered 
in Southwold as a curate of the vicar of St, 
Margaret's In Reydon. Edward Yonges, a 
vicar, was In Southwold In 1616. It is stated 
by Charles B. Moore, Esq., that our first pas- 
tor " had the official record of belnof forbid- 
den passage in the Mary Ann of Yarmouth — 
the vessel In which he proposed to sail In 1637 
from Yarmouth to Salem, with Mrs. Ames, 
and with his own wife and children. Some ol 
his parlshoners came In that vessel, and prob- 
ably his family, for they soon arrived." He 
may have made the voyage by way of Hol- 
land. " He appeared at Salem, Massachu- 
setts, at the same time with ' the widow Ames' 
and her sons. Lands were voted to be given 
to him If he would stay at Salem, and also to 
her, and to the widow Paine, who, with others, 
came over in the Mary Ann when he was 
stopped. Mr. Youngs did not stay long at 
Salem, but appeared soon at New Haven with 
Mr. Davenport." See the New York Genea- 
logical and Biographical Record, vol. 3, p. 
164, vol. 4, p. 16. These fa^is make it high- 
ly probable that our first pastor was a kins- 



HINGHAM, NORFOLK. 25 

man of the vicar of Reydon, and that our Pu- 
ritan town, the oldest on Long Island, was 
named Southold on account of his conne(?tion 
with Southould or Southwold in England. 
The name of the county also was taken of 
course from Suffolk County, England. Un- 
doubtedly the various modes of writing the 
names as Southold, Southhold, Southould, 
Southwold, Sowolde, had far more relation to 
the written than to the oral use. 

After the Rev. John Youngs was forbidden 
to sail for New England from Yarmouth just 
at the point where England thrusts the coast- 
line deepest into the German ocean, perhaps 
he retired a day's journey dire6lly inland to- 
ward the west, and became the pastor of a 
church at Hingham, in Norfolk County, a par- 
ish some ten or twelve miles nearly west of 
the city of Norwich. 

Trumbull, in his History of Connecticut, 
says that '* New Haven, or their confederates, 
purchased and settled Yennycock, [Southold] 
on Long Island. Mr. John Youngs, who had 
been a minister at Hingham, in England, 
came over with a considerable part of his 
church, and here fixed his residence. He 
g.athered his church anew on the 2 ist of Ofto- 

3 



26 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ber, [1640,] and the planters united them- 
selves with New Haven." '' Some of the 
principal men were the Reverend Mr. Youngs, 
Mr. William Wells, Mr. Barnabas Horton. 
Thomas Mapes, John Tuthill, and Matthias 
Corwin." 

There is no trace of evidence known to me 
that all of these men ever resided in New 
Haven. 

Thompson, in his History of L(3ng Island, 
says that the Rev. John Youngs " organized a 
church at New Haven, and they, with others 
willing to accompany them, commenced the 
settlement of this town." But Thompson 
gives no authority for this statement, and it is 
manifestly unhistorical. It was " here " at 
Southold that " he gathered his church 
anew;" for it was ''here" at Southold that 
he " fixed his residence ;" and the church 
which he gathered anew was not a church or- 
ganized in New Haven ; but it was organized 
in Southold where he fixed his residence. 

Mr. Augustus Griffin, in his "Journal," 
tells a lively story of the settlement of South- 
old — how a company of thirteen men with 
their families left England about the year 
1638 ; after some weeks, arrived at New Ha- 



A FANCIFUL STORY. 2 J 

ven, "then a small village in the then colony 
of Connecticut ;" how they remained there 
about two years, until early in the autumn of 
1640, when they all embarked in a vessel 
with their families. effe61:s, and provisions 
enough to supply them for the coming win- 
ter, and sailed to Southold and made their 
dwellings here. The names of these thirteen 
men, Mr. Griffin says, were Rev. John Youngs, 
Barnabas Horton, William Wells, Esq., Peter 
Hallock, John Tuthill, Richard Terry, Thomas 
Mapes, Matthias Corwin, Robert Akerly, Ja- 
cob Corey, John Conkline, Isaac Arnold, John 
Budd. "These men," he adds, "with their 
families, were the first of any civilized nation 
that had made the attempt to settle on the 
east end of Long Island. This took place in 
the early part of September 1640." 

The venerable man who wrote the above 
when he was ninety years of age, was genial, 
kindly, and imaginative, and he drew largely 
for his faCls upon his fancy in making the sketch 
of the settlement and early history of South- 
old. No company of thirteen men, including 
these whose names he gives, ever crossed the 
ocean in the same vessel, or lived two years 
together in New Haven, or sailed to Southold 



2S HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD; 

either at the time or in the manner that he 
describes in the first pages of his romantic 
narrative ; nor was New Haven at that time 
in the then colony of ConnecSlicut. His 
" thirteen adventurers " include men of differ- 
ent generations, and some of them were 
scarcely born in 1640. There is only a tradi- 
tion that one of them was ever in Southold at 
any time* 

These fadls are now well kriown in respe6l 
to them, namely : 

William Wells, Esq., son of an eminent 
prebendary of the cathedral of Norwich, who 
was also the Re6lor of the most maofnificent 
and splendid church in that city, left England, 
it is believed, June 19th, 1635, in the same 
vessel with John Bayley, another of the early 
settlers of Southold, who in 1664 became the 
first of three purchasers of the Indian title of 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mr. Wells probably 
came here by way of Lynn, Massachusetts, 
and not from New Haven. See Moore's 
'* Indexes of Southold " and Hayes's " Wil- 
liam Wells of Southold." 

Barnabas Horton was not a native of 
Hingham in Norfolkshire ; but of Mouseley 
in Leicestershire. There is no evidence that 



BARNABAS RORTtJN, t^ 

he ever was in Hingham, England, or in New 
Haven, in this country, before he settled at 
Southold. He may have dwelt in Hampton, 
Massachusetts, previous to 1640. See the 
Horton Genealogy, by G. F. Horton, M. D. 

The following is the inscription on the mas- 
sive slab of blue slate, imported from Mouse- 
ley,, that rests upon the walls which surround 
his grave : 

" Here lieth buried the body of Mr. Barna- 
bas Horton, who was born at Mousely, Lei- 
cestershire, old England, and died at South- 
old, on the 13th day of July, 1680. aged 80 
years. 

Here lies my body tombed in dust 
' Till Christ shall come to raise it with the just ; 
My soul ascended to the throne of God, 
Where with sweet Jesus now 1 make abode : 
Then hasten after me, my dearest wife, 
To be partaker of this blessed life: 
And you. dear children all, follow the Lord, 
Hear and obey His public sacred word ; 
And in your houses call upon His name, 
For oft have I advised you to the same : 
Then God will bless you with your children all, 
And to this blessed place he will you call. 
Ilel). XI:4. 'lie being dead, yet speaketh.' " 



30 HISTOkY OF SOUTHOLD; 

Peter Hallock was probably the father of 
William Hallock, and may have come to 
Southold ; but there is only traditional evi- 
dence of it. William Hallock, who died on 
the 28th day of September, 1684, ^^^t a re- 
cord, property and posterity here; He 
wrote his name Holyoake* But he was pro- 
bably the ancestor of all the Hallocks and 
Hallecks in this country. See the Records 
of the Town of Southold, and William Hol- 
yoake's will in the " Hallock Genealogy," by 
the Rev. William A. Hallock, D. D. 

John Tuthill may have come to this place 
from Hingham, Massachusetts, whence came 
hither Henry Tuthill, the ancestor of all the 
Tuthills of Southold. Henry Tuthill settled 
in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1637, where 
he had land which he afterwards sold, proba- 
bly because of his removal to Southold. His 
wife survived him, and afterwards became the 
wife of William Wells, Esq. See Town Re- 
cords, Book A, folio 105, and Tuthill '' Fam- 
ily Meeting," pages 31 — ^1,, printed at Sag- 
Harbor, 1867. See also New Haven Colony 
Records, 2, folio 97. 

Richard Terry sailed from England with his 
elder brothers Thomas and Robert in 1635. 



TfeRkV, PURRIER, MAPESi ^ t 

Both Thomas and Richard subsequently made 
their homes in Southold. But in 1640 Rich- 
ard was negotiating with Capt. Howe, of Lynn, 
Massachusetts, for a settlement on Long Is- 
land, and Capt. Howe, at that time, was plan- 
ning to settle Southampton. See Moore's 
" Indexes of Southold" and George R. How- 
ell's " History of Southampton, Long Island;" 
Thomas Mapes was here as early as 1657. 
He was a son-in-law of William Furrier, who 
was settled in Southold before any record 
was made to show the presence and interests 
of Mr. Mapes in this place. William Furrier 
was of Olney, Buckinghamshire, the parish 
which Newton and Cowper have made fa- 
mous. He sailed from England with his wife 
and three children on the first day of April 
1635, in the " Hopewell," for New England. 
John Cooper and Edmund Farrington of the 
same village were his companions on the 
voyage. John Cooper settled in Boston, 
where he became a '* freeman," that is, a 
voter, in 1636. He afterwards removed to 
New Haven and subsequently became one of 
the foremost, wealthy and influential persons 
in Southampton, Long Island. He was in 
Southold, with his home in Southampton, in 



32 HISTOR\- OF SOlfTHf3i;D,. 

1673. Edmund F^arrington settled In Lynn, 
and afterward became interested in the plant- 
ing of vSouthampton, L. I. Thomas Mapes, 
who seems to have come to Southold later 
than these Olney men came to Long Island, 
made his will in 1686. It was proved the 
next year. See Town Records of Southold. 
Documents relating to the Colonial History 
of New York. Moore's Indexes. Howell's 
Southampton. Hatfield's Elizabeth.. 

Matthias Corwin settled in Ipswich, Massa- 
chusetts, before he made his home in South- 
old. He received a grant of land — probably 
a second grant — in that place in 1634. It is 
evident that he came to Southold by way of 
New Haven, and may have been in Southold 
soon after the purchase of the place by the 
authorities of New Haven. The excellent 
" Corwin Genealogy," by the Rev. Edward 
Tanjore Corwin, D. D., refers to the proper 
authorities, and says on page 161, that " the 
record at Ipswich notes that he emigrated 
thence to Long Island." The chapel of the 
Presbyterian Church, just across the main 
street from the First Church of Southold, now 
stands on his house-home lot. 

Robert Akerly probably came from Stam- 



COREYj CONKLtN. 3^ 

ford or New Haven to Southold early in the 
history of this place ; but the precise year is 
unknown. 

Jacob Corey may have been a native of 
Southold; for he died here in 1706, more 
than sixty-five years after the Rev. John 
Youngs gathered his church anew in this 
place ; and so far as known, his name appear- 
ed for the first time upon the record here in 
1667, when he received a deed for a house 
and lot from John Tuthill. He belonged to 
the second o^eneration here. See Town 
Records. 

John Conklin doubtless came to Southold 
from Salem, Massachusetts, where he re- 
ceived, as one of its inhabitants, a grant of 
four acres of land on the 30th day of May 
1649. Before 1655 ^^ removed to Southold 
and made his home here, apparently in the 
part of the town called Hashamommuck, 
though he seems to have retained his lands in 
Salem ; for in 1683 ^^ gave his son John a 
deed for them. Previous to this date, he had 
removed to Huntington, L. I. See Town 
Records. 

Isaac Arnold was born about the time of 
the settlement of Southold, and died more 



34 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

than sixty-six years after the organization of 
our First Church here. He became a promi- 
nent citizen of the second generation, after 
the Rev. John Youngs, WilHam Wells, Esq., 
Matthias Corwin, Barnabas Horton, Thomas 
Moore, Capt. John Underbill, Barnabas 
Wines, William Furrier, and other chief men 
of the first o-eneration had died. 

o 

John Budd was in New Haven in 1639, 
and for several years thereafter, as the New 
Haven Records show ; and most probably he 
continued to live there or in England for the 
next fifteen years. He was in the Old 
country in 1654. On his return, he concern- 
ed himself in the settlement of Setauket, 
Lono- Lsland ; but he became a resident of 
Southold prior to 1657. ^^^ 1658 he had 
much trouble and litio-ation with some of his 
neighbors. The ample records of this year 
show that most precious interests and deep 
feelings were touched by a protracted investi- 
gation under the provisions of this Town-law 
respecting slander : 

'* Every such person as inhabiteth among 
us and shall be found to bee a common tale 
bearer, tatler, or busie bodie in idle matters, 
forger or coyner of reports, untruths or lyes, 



JOHN BUDD. 35 

or frequently using provokeinge, rude, unsav- 
orie words, tending to disturb the peace, shall 
forfeit and pay for every default lo s." 

It was very likely inconveniences arising 
from the enforcement of this law against one 
of his neighbors, that led Mr. Budd, in 1659, to 
sell his house-home lot in this Town, and re- 
move from the place to the main land. In 
1 66 1, he purchased land of the Indians in 
Westchester county, New York, where he set- 
tled, and continued to reside until the time of 
his death, which occurred as early as 1670. 
See Town Records, New Haven Records, 
Bolton's History of Westchester County, 
Moore's Indexes, etc. 

The fa^is on record in resped to these 
"thirteen men" most thoroughly prove, that 
there is no historic foundation whatever tor 
the story that they came here together in Sep- 
tember 1640 and settled this Town. The 
facets prove that they never came from Eng- 
land in company; that they never were to- 
gether in New Haven, either in 1640, or be- 
fore or after this date ; that they never came 
to Southold in the same vessel and at the 
same time ; that some of them were elsewhere 
for several years after the settlement; that 



36 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Others of them belonged to the second gen- 
eration of its inhabitants ; that the greater part 
of them were never members of the Rev. John 
Youngs's church in Hingham, England ; that 
they were never organized as a church in New 
Haven ; that the story of the settlement to 
which Griffin's •'Journal" has given currency 
is a fi6lion. 

Thompson says that the Rev. John Youngs 
"came to New Haven in 1638;" and this 
statement is likely to hold good. He also 
states, that " the Governor of New Haven 
Theophilus Eaton, and the authorities there 
had not only aided the first settlers in their 
negotiations about the purchase of the soil, 
but a6lually took the conveyance in their own 
names, and exercised a limited control over 
the territory for several years." These state- 
ments rest immovably on the New Haven Re- 
cords. 

On the 1 8th of June, 1639, Matthew Sun- 
derland leased of James Farrett lands which 
are in the town of Southold. On the 4th of 
September, 1639, he took a receipt for rent 
paid thereon. The next year he improved the 
land and paid rent thereon a second time, 
namely, September 9th, 1 640, After his death, 



u 



LEASE, JUNE 1 8, 1 639. 37 

his widow retained posession of his improve- 
ments ; and in 1649, having previously mar- 
ried William Salmon, her second husband and 
her children took the personal property and 
claimed the land under the lease from Farrett. 
See the Town Records. Farrett's first trans- 
action with the Southampton people was a 
year later than with Sunderland — one being 
June 18, 1639, and the other being June 12, 
1640. 

Richard Jackson was appointed in Massa- 
chusetts, 20th NovembeV, 1637, on a commit- 
tee to lay off Sudbury. In March, 1638, an- 
other man, named Oliver, was appointed in 
his place. On the 15th of August, 1640, he 
obtained a deed from Lord Sterling's agent, 
James Farrett, for lands which he had pur- 
chased in this Town. This was earlier than 
Stirling's deed to Southampton. On the 25th 
of the 06lober, 1640, he sold this land with 
his house upon it and other improvements to 
Thomas Weatherby, mariner, for ^15 sterling. 
Weatherby subsequently sold it to Stephen 
Goodyear, the eminent merchant of New Ha- 
ven ; and Goodyear with title from Weather- 
by, Jackson, and the Indians, sold it to John 
Ketcham, by whom it was conveyed to Thomas 
4 



38 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Moore, in the possession of whose descendants 
and heirs it remains, it is believed, until this 
day. See Goodyear's deed in the Town Re- 
cords. 

This sale of his land with his dwelling house 
and other improvements by Jackson was made 
four days after the Rev. John Youngs gather- 
ed his church anew in this place. 

It is not known how many other settlers 
were here in 1639 and the" following year, be- 
fore the church was organized on the 21st of 
061:ober 1640. In the planting of the adjoin- 
ing Town of Southampton, it would appear 
that some of the men at least were on the soil 
several months before the formation of their 
church in November, a month later than the 
organization of the First Church of Southold. 
The church and town here were in the closest 
relations with New Haven ; and the first set- 
tlers of the latter place landed on the site 
chosen for their plantation the 15th of April, 
1638, (O. S.) ; but it was not until August 
2 1 St, 1639, that the church was fully organized. 
See its Manual for the year 1867. The anal- 
ogy of the neighboring settlements, the known 
fa6ls, and the nature of the case, leave no 
doubt, that some of the early settlers of South- 



INDIAN TITLES. 39 

old were here many months, and perhaps two 
years before the organization of the church 
on the 2 1 St of 06lober, 1640. We trace them 
on their way hither through other parts of New 
England, from 1635 onward. Some of them 
removed from other places during the years 
1638 and 1639, and probably came here about 
the same time. 

It was not the custom of the early settlers 
of New England and other parts of the coun- 
try to purchase the Indian title and afterwards 
begin the settlement. On the contrary, the 
settlements were first begun, and subsequent- 
ly the settlers engaged in trade with the In- 
dians ; and when it became convenient, they 
purchased the Indian title to the land which 
they had already occupied. So it was done 
at Plymouth, and Wethersfield, and Hartford, 
and New Haven, and New York, and many 
other places. So it was done on Long Island 
at Southold, Southampton, Jamaica, and else- 
where. The purchase of Southold was made 
of the Indians here as early at least as August, 
1640, and it is simply preposterous to sup- 
pose that the earliest settlers, the Rev. John 
Youngs and his companions, came here and 
begun the settlement of the Town at a 



40 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

later date. They were doubtless here several 
months, and very likely a whole year, before 
the purchase of the Indian title in August, 
1640. There seems to be all-sufhcient evi- 
dence to support the oft-repeated historic 
statement, which is made in the words of the 
Rev. Dr. Prime's History, that '' Southold was 
the first town settled on Long Island." 

Mr. George R. Howell, the historian of 
Southampton, has recently presented a claim 
to this distinction in behalf of that Town. But 
the claim is based upon the unfounded sup- 
position, that there were no settlers in the 
Town of Southold previous to the autumn of 
1640, about the time of the organization of 
the church in October, (which the Hon. Silas 
Wood, in his "Towns of Long Island," seems 
erroneously to regard as the settlement of 
the Town), or the claim is put forth on the 
ground oi an imaginary transfer of an imagin- 
ary church or company of men from New 
Haven to Southold, as stated by Griffin, " in 
the early part of September, 1640." The 
truth is, that the settlement here was so old 
in the autumn of 1640, that Richard Jackson, 
who had cultivated his land and built his 
house and other improvements here, desired 



OLDEST L. I. TOWN. 4I 

at that time to sell, and did sell, his dwelling 
house, and all his other improvements, as well 
as his land within this Town, only four days 
after the date of the organization of the First 
Church of Southold. 

The fadls show that this Town is older than 
Southampton in all the essential and import- 
ant tests of settlement, namely : 

1. Southold is older than Southampton by 
the earlier purchase of the territory from the 
Indians. 

2. Southold is older than Southampton by 
the earlier renting and purchase of land from 
English owners, and cultivation and improve- 
ment thereof, by the first dwellers within the 
bounds of the Town. 

3. Southold is older than Southampton by 
its union in Civil Government with the Towns 
of the New Haven Jurisdiction at an earlier 
date than the union of Southampton with 
the Colony of Connecticut. 

4. Southold is older than Southampton by 
the earlier organization of its First Church in 
an age when the political and the religious 
life and institutions of the people were so 
closely interwoven. 

Thus the long-continued historical state- 



42 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ment remains good, that " Southold was the 
first Town settled on Long Island." It may 
be added, that in the year 1640 the New 
Haven Colony made a large purchase of ter- 
ritory on both sides of the Delaware, or South 
river, and sent thither about fifty families. 
This purchase seems to have been made after 
the New Haven Jurisdiction had secured pos- 
session of Southold on Long Island across 
the Sound from the original settlement. See 
Trumbull's History of Conne6licut, Vol. i, 
p. 119. 

When the Town Records of Southampton 
were edited, printed and published a few 
years since, the Hon. Henry A. Reeves, a 
native of the Town of Southampton and a 
resident of the Town of Southold, wrote and 
published in his paper, the Republican Watch- 
man of Greenport, the conclusion which he 
had formed on this subject after an examina- 
tion of the Records, and subsequently also to 
the publication of many columns at different 
times in his paper for and against the new 
claim of priority of settlement put forth in 
behalf of his native Town. He said : " Be- 
sides our interest in this volume as ' a son of 
the soil,' we have examined it with some care 



OLDER THAN SOUTHAMPTON. 43 

in order to find whatever light may be cast by 
it upon the mooted question of priority of 
settlement as between the towns of Southold 
and Southampton, but fail to discover any 
positive or very satisfa6lory circumstantial 
evidence bearing upon the point. Certainly 
the claim recently advanced on behalf of South- 
ampton, in opposition to the long and hereto- 
fore universally accepted tradition (admitting 
that it is not established upon the basis of 
exadl historic truth), which has presented 
Southold as the oldest town in the State of 
New York settled by people of English de- 
scent, cannot be supported upon mere infer- 
ences and conje6lures. The earliest writings 
in the Town archives, as published in the First 
Book of Records, do not furnish any stronger 
or other proofs of priority than such as are 
strid:ly inferential. It may be there are other 
grounds on which Southold's precedence can 
be disputed, but they have not yet been 
brought to our notice." 

When Southold became a part of the Juris- 
di6lion of the New Haven Colony, the people 
and government of that plantation sometimes 
called this Long Island Town by its Indian 
name Yennecock, or Yennecott, and some- 



44 HISTORY OF SOUtHOLt). 

times by its English name Southold. When 
the people of Southold were about to build a 
village at the western end of the territory of 
the Town, on Wading River, they voted in 
Town Meeting that it should be called West 
Hold. See Town Records, Book A. 

For nearly thirty years past I have been 
carefully making a list of the early settlers, 
who left written evidence, (in the Town Rec- 
ords ; in Deeds conveying lands, or other 
property ; in Wills ; on Tombstones, or other 
documents,) that they were full grown men 
here within the life-time of the first pastor. 
Nearly all named in the list which I have 
made were not only residents here, but also 
landowners. In the words of the Town Pa- 
tent, they were " Freeholders and Inhabitants." 
Of course there were many who left no writ- 
ten record which has survived them and come 
down to us. But the life which they lived 
here has gone into the body and soul of those 
adiivities and endurances that have formed 
the history and the character of this place. 
Though we know not their names, we never- 
theless enjoy the fruit of their virtues, and 
reap the harvest of their toils. The very fa6l 
that they are unnamed may be owing to their 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



45 



superior modesty and worth, just as a goodly 
number of women, — faithful daughters, wives 
and mothers, — who have left no written record 
here, doubtless surpassed in patience, indus- 
try, virtue and piety many sons, husbands and 
fathers whose names are thus known. They 
shall in a future day and thenceforth and for- 
ever have their proper and honorable meed 
when the names, written in the Book of Life, 
become known to all mankind. 

Here is the list, which is believed to be ac- 
curate as to all whom it includes : 



Robert Akerly, 
Isaac Arnold, 
Thomas Baker, 
John Bayley, 
Thomas Benedi6l, 
Richard Benjamin, 
Simeon Benjamin, 
John Booth, 
Richard Brown, 
Richard Brown, Jr., 
John Budd, 
David Carwithe, 
Henry Case, 
Roger Cheston, 



Richard Clark, 
John Conklin, 
John Conklin, Jr., 
Jacob Conklin, 
Thomas Cooper, 
John Corey, 
Jacob Corey, 
Abraham Corey, 
Matthias Corwin, 
John Corwin, 
Theophilus Corwin, 
William Cramer, 
Caleb Curtis, 
Thomas Curtis, 



46 



HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 



Philemon Dickerson, 
Peter Dickerson, 
John Dickerson, 
Thomas Dimon, 
Nicholas Edes, 
John Elton, 
Matthias Edwards, 
John England, 
Jeffrey Esty, 
William Fanley, 
Beiiqni Flint, 
John Franklin, 
John Frost, 
Charles Glover, 
Samuel Glover, 
Ralph Goldsmith, 
John Greete, 
Samuel Grover, 
Simon Grover, 
James Haines, 
John Haines, 
William Hallock, 
Richard Harrude, 
John Herbert, 
John Herbert, Jr., 
James Hildreth, 
Barnabas Horton, 



\s 



Joseph Horton, 
Benjamin Horton, 
Caleb Horton, 
Joshua Horton, 
Jonas Houldsworth, 
Richard Howell, 
Thomas Hutchinson, 
Richard Jackson, 
Joseph Jennings, 
William Johnson, 
Jeffrey Jones, 
John Ketchum, 
John King, 
Samuel King, 
Thomas Mapes, 
Thomas Mapes, Jr., 
Jeremiah Meacham, 
Stephen Metcalf, 
George Miller, 
Thomas Moore, 
Benjamin Moore, 
Jonathan Moore, 
Nathaniel Moore, 
Francis Nichols, 
Humphrey Norton, 
Thomas Osman, 
Isaac Overton, 



EARLY SETTLERS. 



47 



Peter Paine, 
John Paine, 
John Peakin, 
Edward Petty, 
WilHam Purrier, 
John Racket, 
James Reeve, 
Thomas Rider, 
John Rider, 
WilHam Robinson, 
Evan SaHsbury, 
WilHam Salmon, 
John Salmon, 
Thomas Scudder, 
Henry Scudder, 
Joshua Silvester, 
Richard Skidmore, 
Arthur Smyth, 
Nathaniel Smyth, 
Robert Smyth, 
Thomas Stevenson, 
Edward Stevenson, 
Matthew Sunderland. 
John Swezey, 
Thomas Terrell, 
Richard Terry, 
Thomas Terry, 



John Terry, 
Daniel Terry, 
Edward Treadwell, 
John Tucker, 
Charles Tucker, 
Henry Tuthill, 
John Tuthill, 
John Tuthill, Jr., 
Daniel Turner, 
Thomas Tustin, 
John Underbill, 
Jeremiah Vail, 
Jeremiah Vail, Jr., 
Thomas Weatherby, 
William W^ells, 
Henry W^hitney, 
Thomas Whittier, 
-John Wiggins, 
Abraham Wiggins, 
Barnabas Wines, 
Barnabas Wines, Jr., 
Samuel Wines, 
John Youngs, pastor, 
John Youngs, Jr., 
Thomas Youngs, 
Samuel Youngs, 
Joseph Youngs, 



48 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Christopher Youngs, Joseph Youngs, Jr., 
Joseph Youngs, mariner, Gideon Youngs.— 138 

There are 138 names in the Hst. 

It has fallen in my way to learn much of the 
history of some of these men and of their de- 
scendants of the earlier generations; and I 
may say, that there is abundant evidence, 
from many sources, that the first settlers were 
lovers of liberty and virtue, and had intelli- 
gence, and wisdom, and enterprise, and indus- 
try, and endurance, and piety enough to make 
them, by God's blessing, the worthy found- 
ers of a permanent and prosperous Church 
and Town. Throughout the period of twenty- 
two years from the first planting of the Town, 
it was only the men who were Church mem- 
bers in full communion that could be voters in 
the Town Meeting or hold any office of trust 
or responsibility in the Town. Their faith and 
patience, their foresight and energy, their pure 
worship of God, their high moral life through 
obedience to His word, and their supreme 
trust in His Son, enabled those who knew them 
to say: "The wilderness and the solitary place 
shall be glad for them ; and the desert shall 
rejoice and blossom as the rose/' They faith- 



REMOVALS. 49 

fully accomplished the work which Divine Prov- 
idence committed to their hearts and hands, 
and left to their successors the precious in- 
heritance that sprang into existence as the 
fruit of their virtues and their toils. 

Of the full-grown men — at least one hun- 
dred and thirty-eight — who lived here and left 
their record in the annals of this Town during 
the period of the ministry of the first pas- 
tor from 1640 to 1672, not a few removed to 
other places, and became important factors and 
elements in the settlement and life of other 
Towns. 

Of these, Thomas Baker removed to East- 
hampton. Long Island. He was one of the 
settlers and representatives of that Town who 
obtained in 1649 the title from Gov. Eaton and 
Gov. Hopkins, these Governors having pur- 
chased it the previous year from the native 
chiefs of Manhanset, (Shelter Island), Mon- 
tauk, Cutchogue, and Shinnecock. His name 
is first in the list of residents of Easthampton 
who in 1660 bought the title of Montauk from 
the widow and son of the Chief. In this list 
are also the names of Jeremiah Meacham and 
George Miller, who had been previously in- 
habitants of Southold, 

5 



50 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

John Tucker lived on the site of Mr. Bama- 
bus Horton Booth's present residence. His 
home and land there gave name to the street 
which bounds Mr. Booth's property on the 
northeast and east from the main street of the 
village to the north road. He became one of 
the early settlers of the Town of Brookhaven, 
Long Island ; and so did William Fanley, John 
Budd, Arthur Smyth, Robert Akerly and John 
Frost. 

John Underbill, the famous Captain, ended 
his remarkable career in Oyster Bay Township, 
Queens County, Long Island. The early his- 
tory of New England and New York very 
clearly shows how he used his sword. While 
he was living in Southold he wrote a letter to 
John Winthrop, Jr., a part of which letter may 
show how he used his pen. It is this : 

''SOUTHOULD, L. I., ) 

T2 of April 1656. j 
Sir I was latli at Flusching. Hanna Feke 
is to be marrid to a verri gentiele young man, 
of gud abiliti, of louli fetture and gud behafior." 

This Hanna F'eke was a sister of Capt. John 
Underbill's wife, Elizabeth Feke — not '' Field," 
as Thomson says in his History of Long Is- 
land — and, sure enough, she was married to 



THOMAS BENEDICT. 5I 

John Bowne on the 7th day of the next month 
after Capt. Underhill wrote the above letter to 
Gov. Winthrop. 

Thomas Stevenson, who came to Southold 
and Hved here as early as 1644, was in Hemp- 
stead in 1647, when land was assigned to him 
there. He settled in Newtown as early as 

1655- 

Thomas Benedi(fi: was a native of Notting- 
hamshire, England. He came early to South- 
old, and settled in Hashamommuck on the 
east side of the creek which derived its earli- 
est English name from his own. It was first 
called Thomas Benedi6l's creek, later Thomas's 
creek, then Tom's creek, and now Mill creek. 
The house in which he lived was not far from 
the Sound. His five sons and four daughters 
were born in Southold. He subsequently re- 
moved to Huntington, thence to Jamaica, Long 
Island, and afterwards settled at Norwalk, Con- 
ne6licut. He was a prominent man in each of 
these places. Seethe *' Benedi6l Genealogy," 
by his descendant, Henry M. Benedi61:, Esq., 
of Albany, New York. 

John Bayley was born in England in 161 7 
and resided at Guilford in the jurisdi6lion of 
New Haven General Court in 1642. He came 



52 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

to Southold In 1654; sold his dwelling and 
home lot here in 1661, and removed to Jamaica, 
Long Island. He was the first who signed 
the petition to Gov. Nichols for permission to 
plant Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the first man 
named in the Indian deed for that place. He 
was also the first of the four men to whom the 
patent was granted by the Governor under the 
Duke of York. He probably never removed 
from Jamaica to Elizabeth. See the Rev. Dr. 
Hatfield's History of Elizabeth. 

William Cramer moved from Southold to 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, and so did John Dick- 
erson, John Haines, William Johnson, Jeffrey 
Jones, Evan Salisbury, Barnabas Wines, Jr., 
and Thomas Youngs. All these men were 
among the early settlers of that place. 

The descendants of many of these early set- 
tlers have been numerous, eminent and influ- 
ential. 

Not a few who trace their lineage to the 
first pastor are professional men — clergymen, 
physicians, lawyers, judges. One of his de- 
scendants was a Governor of the State of New 
York, and was before his election known as Col. 
John Youngs. 

The ''Wells Genealogy" shows the goodly 



t)ICKERSONS. 53 

array of the posterity of the earhest Southoid 
lawyer, and Clerk and Recorder of the Town. 

The '* Horton Genealogy" is a monument 
to the honor of Barnabas Horton, and a noble 
record of thousands of his descendants. 

Larofe families of Dickersons and Dickin- 
sons are descendants of Southold's Philemon 
Dickerson. Mahlon Dickerson, Secretary of 
the U. S. Navy, (who, during the autumn of 
1 85 1, ere6led in the cemetery of the First 
Church of Southoid a massive marble monu- 
ment to the memory of his ancestors), and his 
brother Philemon Dickerson, Governor of New 
Jersey, as well as Daniel S. Dickinson, U. S. 
Senator from the State of New York, sprang 
from the Southoid settler, who came to this 
place by way of Salem and of Lynn, Massa- 
chusetts. 

The descendants of Deacon Barnabas Wines 
include many eminent men, among them Gen. 
Wines of New Jersey, prominent in Morris 
County during the Revolutionary war, and the 
Rev. Dr. Abijah Wines, a native of Southoid, 
who was born May 27, 1 776 ; married a daugh- 
ter of the Hon. Benjamin Giles ; had two chil- 
dren and built his dwelling house on his farm 
in Newport, New Hampshire, before he com- 



54 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

menced his preparation for Dartmouth Col- 
lege, from which he was graduated in 1794, 
and subsequently became the first Professor 
of Systematic Theology in the Seminary now 
at Bangor, Maine. To this family belongs also 
the late Rev. Enoch Cobb Wines, D. D., who 
was born in Hanover, New Jersey, Feb. 17, 
1806, and became so well known as College 
Professor and College President, author of 
many volumes, especially his " Commentaries 
on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews," a work 
which is also known in later editions as ''The 
Hebrew Commonwealth ; " and whose labors 
have become famous in all parts of Christen- 
dom as the foremost advocate of the age in 
behalf of Prison Reformation. 

The following is a letter from his graceful 
and productive pen : 

" Irvington, New York, | 
Nov. 5, 1866. j 
"My Dear Brother Whitaker: 
* * * * I was elad to hear 
from you, for I have a very pleasant recollec- 
tion of our occasional interviews when a pas- 
tor at the East End." [That is, Easthampton, 
L. L] 

" 1 must own to the soft impeachment of 
being of the Long Island stock of Wines, and 



WINES. 55 

I do not feel ashamed of my ancestry. We 
are of Welsh descent, a good country to be re- 
lated to. I am glad you are engaged on so 
worthy a work, and hope it may soon appear 
from the press. 

"I should love to visit you, and look upon 
the orio-inal homestead of the Wineses. Let 
me hear from you again. 

"Truly and fraternally yours, 

E. C. Wines. 
" Rev. Epher Whitaker, 

Southold, L. I." 

The descendants of Matthias Corwin are 
very numerous and widely spread. "The Cor- 
win Genealogy" indicates the names and rela- 
tions of many worthy persons, among them 
Thomas Corwin, Congressman, Governor of 
Ohio, U. S. Senator, Secretary of the National 
Treasury, U. S. Minister to Mexico.. Both of 
his grandparents were Southolders. 

William H. Seward, Governor of the State 
of New York, U. S. Senator, Secretary of State 
of the United States during the war to sup- 
press the great Rebellion, was a descendant of 
John vSwezey of Southold. Hon. George W. 
Seward, brother of the more eminent statesman, 
William H. Seward, and the father of Dr. Sew- 
ard, of Orange, New Jersey, and of the Rev. 



56 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

S. S. Seward, of New York City, has recently 
visited Southold in the interest of this relation- 
ship. 

Very many of the earliest comers to New 
England, Long Island, and New Jersey were 
a restless generation. They were rather ad- 
venturers and tradesmen than planters and set- 
tlers. But the most of the first generation of 
Southold, and the most substantial part of the 
people, came hither and settled here for Re- 
ligion. They freely placed themselves under 
the New Haven. Jurisdiction. They were in 
accord with the New Haven ideas and purpo- 
ses. What were the motives and aims of the 
New Haven planters, their first pastor, the 
Rev. John Davenport, has unfolded in a mas- 
terly manner. The Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon, 
the worthy pastor of the same Church, has 
also faithfully set them forth in his " Histori- 
cal Discourses." A paragraph from his ser- 
mon on the close of the fortieth year of his 
pastorate may properly be quoted here. Of 
New Haven he says: "Historically, the Town 
itself, as an organized community, is a daugh- 
ter of this Church. It was for the sake of 
planting here a church encumbered by no hu- 
man traditions, and dependent on no human 



PURPOSE OF TFIE SETTLERS. 57 

authority, that the founders of the New Haven 
Colony left their homes in pleasant England, 
and their trades and affairs in busy London, 
and ventured their all in the enterprise of es- 
tablishing here a civil commonwealth of Chris- 
tian men, 'the Lord's free people;' and this is 
the Church which they planted here before 
their settlement had even received an English 
name. It was for the sake of gaining for their 
church a place and habitation, that all this 
beautiful plain, with the surrounding hills and 
waters, was purchased of the savages whom 
they found here. It was for the sake of their 
church that they planned this city, and reserv- 
ed this central square for public uses, first of 
all building here their humble temple, and 
then making their graves around it." 

What is thus so worthily said of New Ha- 
ven is equally true of Southold. The first 
church edifice was built in the central square 
on the highest ground of the settlement, freely 
purchased and sacredly reserved for public 
uses. The earliest graves were made around 
this public building; and these things were 
done by intelligent and pious men, who deem- 
ed religion their chief interest. 

Easthampton, Long Island, in the begin- 



58 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ning of its history, chose to put itself under 
the Government of Conne6licut rather than 
unite with the Jurisdiction of New Haven; 
and Southampton submitted early to a revolu- 
tion, in order to exchange the New Haven 
ideas and purposes for those of Conne6licut ; 
and the pastor, the Rev. Abraham Pierson, 
with a considerable number of the best of the 
people, abandoned the place and settled Bran- 
ford under the New Haven Jurisdi6lion ; and 
when this was merged in Conne61icut, they 
removed from Branford and founded Newark, 
New Jersey. But Southold effeClively resist- 
ed the attempt to accomplish such a trans- 
formation here, and successfully maintained 
its original character. 

It was planted mainly for Religion. This 
purpose ruled the people of the settlement in 
its early years as thoroughly as it controls the 
people of the First Church of Southold to-day. 
And if this congregation now has a right to 
make its own rules, and to pursue its own re- 
ligious objects, according to its own wisdom 
and choice, directed by the Word of God, then 
the early settlers here, in their day, had even 
a more unrestri6led right to the same free- 
dom. They left their pleasant homes, and 



THEIR AIM, RELIGION. 59 

their dear kindred, and all the advantages 
which ages of civilization afforded them in th^ 
country of their birth ; they crossed the ocean, 
and plunged into the wilderness, and hid them- 
selves in its solitudes, and toiled and suffered 
to subdue its savage wilderness ; they endur- 
ed all the unknown and the inevitable hard- 
ships of such an enterprise, for the sake of Re- 
ligion. They chose to level the forest and 
plant the waste places on repulsive shores, in 
order to worship and serve God according to 
His word, and to promote the welfare and sal- 
vation of all those who were willing to share 
their lot and were like-minded with themselves. 
They did not seek to withhold nor desire to 
withhold from those who were unlike-minded, 
the enjoyments of the same liberty which 
they claimed for themselves. The conti- 
nent was large. If men supremely desired 
other obje6ls than the religion of the Bi- 
ble, they could seek those objects elsewhere. 
The wilderness ''was all before them where to 
choose." They had only to make a new plan- 
tation in the savage wild, as the Southold set- 
tlers had done. No man in this place desired 
to interfere with them. But the people here 
were not willing that others should come hith- 



6o HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

€r and selfishly destroy the work for which 
„they themselves had crossed the ocean and 
counted the cost and suffered the hardships of 
planting in the wilderness a church and a com- 
monwealth according to the word of God. If 
strangers did not wish to labor for religion, 
and to live according to the Divine law and 
the gracious gospel of Christ, they could go 
elsewhere and dig up trees' roots, as the set- 
tlers of Southold were doing here. No man 
would prevent them from planting a settle- 
ment according to their own mind. And it 
was only the selfish and unjust who desired to 
thwart the purposes and to seize the posses- 
sions of the Christian founders of this Church 
and Town ; and it is only the selfish and un- 
just who now wish to asperse the name of the 
early settlers, because they were disposed to 
maintain the same freedom and rights which 
they were perfec^tly willing that all others 
should enjoy, viz.: the liberty and the right to 
plant in the wilderness among savages the 
centres and settlements of a new civilization 
according to their own minds and hearts, en- 
lightened by the word of God. It is not un- 
common in these days for a crowd of idlers, 
thieves, vagabonds, rum-drinkers, and loose 



INTERLOPERS. 6 1 

women to swarm out of a steamer or a rail- 
road train on a pleasant Sabbath, and pour in- 
to a quiet village near one of our great cities, 
and forthwith overrun the grounds and plun- 
der the gardens and orchards of the industrious 
citizens, who have planted the orchards and cul- 
tivated the gardens for a far different purpose. 
But the interlopers most violently resent and 
resist any interference with their own doings. 
They most stoutly insist, that no one has more 
or better right to the fruits of the earth — the 
common bounty of all-generous Nature — than 
the children of Nature, even themselves, who 
seek the supply of their wants and the grati- 
fication of their appetites in the most dire6l and 
simple way, by taking what comes to hand. 
They have very little charity for the selfishness 
and exclusiveness of the Puritans who seek to 
retain the advantages for which they have toiled 
and suffered. It is (these robbers say) quite 
too late in the day — it is altogether behind the 
age — for any men or company of men to un- 
dertake to retain for their own use the kindly 
bounty of all-producing Nature, or to set up 
claims for the sole and personal possession of 
property which is fitted to promote the com- 
fort or gratification of mankind. On these 
6 



62 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

principles of loafers and rowdies and thieves, 
and communists — on Prudhon's famous say- 
ing- , La propriete, cest le vol, (property is rob- 
bery) — the early settlers of New Haven and 
Southold, and other Puritan Plantations are 
greatly blamed by the bigotry of base selfish- 
ness for their efforts to defend themselves in 
the posession of the property and the privi- 
leges for which they suffered and toiled, and 
which they made valuable and produftive by 
their own money, labor and hardships. For 
their resolute efforts to retain their own, they 
are charged with narrowness, selfishness, big- 
otry, sourness ; and with a disposition to claim 
that the saints should rule the earth. The 
early settlers of Southold did not make this 
claim. Who ever did ? To charge this upon 
them is a slander, no matter who makes the 
charge. It is the fruit of malice, prejudice, or 
ignorance, and, at this day, nearly equally 
blameworthy from whichever source it comes. 
It is like charging them with ena61:ing and 
maintaining " The Blue Laws of Conne61:i- 
cut " — a code which never had a real, legal ex- 
istence, nor any other origin than the mali- 
cious invention of the spiteful and disrepu- 
table Hugh Peters, The epithet ''blue" w^s 



SLANDERERS. 63 

applied to any one who in the reign of Charles 
II. opposed the looseness, sensuality and vol- 
uptuousness of the times. Thus of one's re- 
ligion, it is said in Hudibras : 

" 'T was Presbyterian true blue." 

"That this epithet," says the New Ameri- 
can Cyclopedia, "should find its way to the 
colonies was a matter of course. It was here 
applied not only to persons, but to the cus- 
toms, institutions, and laws of the Puritans, by 
those who wished to render' the prevailing 
system ridiculous. Hence, probably, a belief 
with some that a distinct system of laws, known 
as the Blue Laws, must somewhere have had a 
local habitation. The existence of such a code 
of Blue Laws is fully disproved. The only au- 
thority in its favor is Peters, who is notorious- 
ly untrustworthy. The traditions upon this 
subje6l, from which Peters framed his stories, 
undoubtedly arose from the fa6l that the ear- 
ly settlers of New Haven were uncommonly 
stri6l in their application of ' the general rules 
of righteousness.' " 

What the people of New Haven, and of 
Southold as a part of the New Haven Juris- 
di6lion, did maintain, was, that they had the 



64 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

right to hold and rule the settlement which 
they had planted in the wilderness for the 
sake of religion and liberty under God ; and 
that it was their duty to resist every attempt 
to rob them of their possessions — their bound- 
en duty to thwart every design to hand them 
and their plantation over to men from whose 
tyranny and vices they had determined and 
undertaken to escape by crossing the ocean 
and planting their dwellings on unknown 
shores ; and by their own virtue, industry, 
endurance of hardship, and devotion to God, 
making the wilderness and the solitary places 
glad for them, and the desert to rejoice and 
blossom as the rose. For the sake of the 
freedom, and the virtue, and the piety taught 
in God's word, they had crossed the sea, leav- 
ing behind them the homes of their kindred 
and the graves of their fathers ; they had en- 
dured the rigors of an unwonted clime ; they 
had toiled to change the savage face of the 
landscape Into fruitful fields ; they had suf- 
fered from storms and tempests in their lowly 
hovels covered only with thatch ; they had 
encountered the terrors of strange and wild 
beasts, and the more unnatural wildness of 
savage and bloody men ; they had fallen in 



THE PURITANS. 65 

sorrowful numbers under the power of unusual 
and destru6live diseases, without the remedies 
and alleviations of the healing art, which are 
desired in vain amid settlements planted in 
the wilderness. And yet they are blamed, 
and abused, and mocked, because they were 
unwilling to give up the fruits of such toils 
and hardships, and to hand over the govern- 
ment of their settlements to the same class of 
corrupters and oppressors that had caused 
them to brave such dangers and endure such 
calamities, and to escape from whose domina- 
tion and wickedness they had crossed the 
ocean, plunging into the wilds of America 
in order to be free. 

Faithful Christian Men ! The haters of lib- 
erty and of godliness oppressed you then ; 
and the haters of religion, virtue and freedom 
malign and revile you now. But the freedom 
and prosperity which we enjoy to-day, you 
won for us in those perilous and suffering 
times ; and the land which we love smiles in 
the light of the worth and piety which you 
made possible. "That the English people 
became Protestants is due to the Puritans." 
This is the testimony of George Bancroft, our 
great national historian ; and with equal truth 



66 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

it may be said : That the United States be- 
came a free and independent nation is due 
to the Puritans. They are, under God, the au- 
thors of those principles and virtues which have 
conferred upon us our rehglous and civil liber- 
ty. It was In the third month of 1643, that the 
Puritan Colonies of America formed their 
Union and became the United Colonies of 
New England. This third month they com- 
monly called May, for the year then began on 
the twenty-fifth day of March ; and on the 
19th of May, 1643, the United Colonies said : 
** We all came into these parts of America 
with one and the same end and aim, namely, 
to advance the kingdom of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the gospel 
in purity and peace." — Bancroft, vol i, page 
464. 

It was to make sure of religious and civil 
freedom and purity that the New Haven Gen- 
eral Court for the Jurisdi61:Ion, on the 27th of 
06lober, 1643, adopted this brief Constitu- 
tion as the fundamental law of the united 
plantations : 

** I. It was agreed and concluded, as a 
fundamental order not to be disputed or ques- 
tioned hereafter, that none shall be admitted 



THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDER. 67 

to be free Burgesses in any of the Plantations 
within this Jurisdi(ftion for the future, but such 
Planters as are members of some or other of 
the approved Churches in New England ; nor 
shall any but such free Burgesses have any 
vote in any Eledlions (the six present freemen 
at Milford enjoying the Liberty with the cau- 
tions agreed). Nor shall any power or trust 
in the ordering of any Civil Affayres be at any 
time put into the hands of any other than such 
church members ; though as free Planters all 
have riofht to their Inheritance and to com- 
merce, according to such Grants, Orders, and 
Laws as shall be made concerning the same." 

[For Articles IL, IIL, IV., and V., see 
Thompson's History of Long Island, and Lam- 
bert's History of New Haven. The last arti- 
cle is this :] 

"VI. The Courts shall, with all care and 
diligence, provide for the maintenance of the 
purity of Religion, and suppress the contrary, 
according to their best light from the Word of 
God, and by the advice of the Elders and 
Churches in the Jurisdicflion, so far as it might 
concern the civill power. 2d. This Court 
shall have power to make and repeal lawes, 
and to require their execution while in force 
in all the several plantations. 3d. To impose 
an oath upon all the Magistrates, and to call 
them to account for breach of the Lawes, and 



68 HISTORY OF SOUtHOLD. 

to censure them according to offences ; to 
settle and levle rates and contribution of the 
Plantations for the public service, and to hear 
and determine causes, whether civill or crim- 
inall ; they to proceed according to the Scrip- 
tures, which is the rule of all righteous lawes 
and sentences. Nothing shall pass as an act 
without the consent of the majority of the 
Magistrates and of the majority of the Depu- 
ties. In the Generall Court shall be and re- 
side the supreme power of the Jurisdi6lion." 

The New Haven Jurisdi6lion, with its sev- 
eral Plantations, continued under this Consti- 
tution until Gov. Winthrop, of Conne6licut, 
through his own personal influence with 
Charles II., obtained the royal charter which 
merged the Jurisdi61:ion of New Haven in 
the Government of Connecticut, and extend- 
ed the boundaries of the latter so as to include 
most of the territory of New Haven. The 
officers and people of New Haven resisted 
this union of the two governments for three 
years, until the coming of royal commissioners 
to determine boundaries caused the dwellers 
in the western part of the New Haven terri- 
tory to fear that they might be placed under 
the authority of the Duke of York ; and this 
they deemed would be more intolerable than 



BRANFORD, NEWARK. 69 

the Government of Conne6licut. According- 
ly, in 1665, the opposition to the charter of 
1662 generally ceased. But the Rev. Abra- 
ham Pierson and nearly all his congregation 
at Branford could not endure even the Con- 
nedlicut Government, and, as we have seen, 
they sought a settlement elsewhere, and soon 
founded Newark, New Jersey. Dr. Sprague, 
in the Annals of the American Pulpit, says of 
Mr. Pierson : ** He was anxious that the little 
colony at Southampton [on its settlement] 
should become conne6led with New Haven, 
as Southold had been [become] ; and was 
dissatisfied with the agreement, in 1644, to 
come under the jurisdi6lion of Connecticut. 
He therefore removed, in 1647, with a small 
part of his congregation, to Branford." '' In 
the contentions between the Jurisdi6lions of 
Conne6licut and New Haven from 1662 to 
1665, Mr. Pierson took sides with Mr. Daven- 
port and others against the union ; and so 
strong were his feelings on this subje61 that, 
when the event took place, he resolved to re- 
move with his people from the colony. Ar- 
rangements were accordingly made, and on 
the 30th of O^lober, 1666, he, with most of 
his congregation and many prominent indi- 



70 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

viduals from Guilford, New Haven and Mil- 
ford, made and signed ' a plantation coven- 
ant ' for that purpose ; the first article of 
which was * that none should be admitted 
freemen or free burgesses, but such planters 
as are members of some or other of the Con- 
gregational churches, and that none but such 
be chosen to magistracy, or to carry on any 
part of civil judicature, or as deputies or 
assistants, or to have power to vote in estab- 
lishing laws, making or repealing them, or 
to any chief military trust or office.' To ac- 
complish their purpose, they removed the 
next year to New Jersey and planted Newark. 
The whole church, with its officers and rec- 
ords, abandoned their lands and homes, and 
left Branford, as Trumbull says, * almost 
without an inhabitant.' " The Rev. Dr. J. F. 
Stearns, in his '* History of the First Church 
of Newark," remarks, that they purposed " to 
found a Church upon pure principles, and a 
State, which, though separate in itsjurisdiftion, 
should act in perfect harmony with the Church, 
and be governed in all its procedures by the 
rules of God's Holy Word." As it was in 
Southold, so it was in Newark in the begin- 
ning, and indeed, according to Dr. Stearns, 



THE MAIN OBJECT. 7 1 

" during the first seventy years, the Town 
transacted all the business of the Congrega- 
tion ; and the seventh minister, as were all his 
predecessors, was called to his office and had 
his salary fixed by a vote of the Town in the 
Town -Meeting." See '* First Church of New- 
ark," page 2. The Rev. John Davenport also 
removed from New Haven, and became the 
Pastor of the First Church of Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. But most of the people of the New 
Haven Jurisdiftion, including those of South- 
old, believed that their liberties would be safe 
under the Conne6licut charter, and according- 
ly retained their lands and remained in the 
homes which they had made for themselves 
and their children. 

There is need of a clear apprehension of 
the main object of the early settlers of this 
place. The history cannot be understood with- 
out it. They did not come here chiefly to 
live in ease, nor to accumulate wealth, nor to 
acquire fame, nor even mainly to lay the foun- 
dations of a civil state or a nation. Their 
main object was Religion. They came here to 
possess and enjoy, to pra6tice and promote 
the religion which they believed the word of 
God required, They planted a Town here for 



72 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

the sake of maintaining a church uncontrolled 
by men who were unwilling to obey the law 
of God, made known in his own word. They 
made the Bible their chief code of laws, and 
the foundation and standard of all their rules 
of government and conduct ; and they did 
this, because the religion of the Bible was 
their chief concern in this life. They did not 
wish to admit into their fellowship any man 
whose purposes, aims, manners, morals, or be- 
havior would not accord and harmonize with 
the chief ends which they had in view. They 
came here while their brethren of like mind 
and faith, on the other side of the sea, were 
writing the catechism whose first statement is 
this, namely: "Man's chief end is to glorify 
God and to enjoy Him forever." 

They doubtless wished to serve Him in 
peace and quietness, free from the conten- 
tions, oppressions and wars which were then 
harrowing the souls and shedding the blood 
of their fellow men in all western Europe. 

For, at the very time of the settlement of 
Southold, the martial forces of continental 
Europe, from the remotest cape of Sweden 
on the north, to the extreme limits of Spain 
and Italy on the south, had already fought 



EVENTS OF THE TIME. 73 

through more than a score of years for and 
against the reHgious freedom and civil rights 
of the northern nations. These nations gain- 
ed this end after a conflict which made all the 
western countries of Europe glow and blaze 
with the heat of war throughout a generation, 
and reduced the population of Germany from 
forty millions to four millions. This struggle 
of thirty years' continuance brought the Peace 
of Westphalia and secured the freedom of the 
Protestants precisely eight years and three 
days after the organization of the Southold 
Church. 

It was in 1640 that Brazil, with other Span- 
ish colonies, became a possession of the Neth- 
erlands, though it soon after fell into the 
hands of the Portuguese. Spain could extend 
her influence only within the limits of Italy ; 
for there, under the popedom of Barberini, 
the inhabitants, having dedicated St. Peter's, 
now had to found the College De Propaganda 
Fide. Furthermore, the Pope deemed it ne- 
cessary to punish Galileo for teaching the true 
theory of the solar system ; and to condemn 
Jansenism, in order to quiet the Jesuits. For 
Jansen's '* Do6lrine of Augustine" was printed 
in 1640, and forthwith added intensity to a 

7 



74 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

controversy within the Papal Church which 
centuries seem unable to end. 

The founders of Southold had grown up 
from their youth in a remarkable age — one 
most a61:ive and progressive in science and 
art, in war and statesmanship, in literature 
and religion. The chief men among them 
were beginning to show their beard when 
Shakespeare died. And it was in their time 
that Harvey discovered the circulation of the 
blood ; Kepler, the wonderful relations of plan- 
etary motion ; Des Cartes, the laws of refrac- 
tion; Torricelli, the weight of the atmos- 
phere; and Pascal wrote the Provincial Let- 
ters and expounded the cycloid. Then it was 
that Kircher invented the speaking trumpet ; 
Gunter, his celebrated scale; Guericke set up 
his gigantic barometer. Then Holland's great- 
est writer became the champion of the free 
commerce of the ocean, and set forth the 
Rights of War and Peace. Then Sir Edward 
Coke wrote his Institutes of the Laws of Eng- 
land; Chillingworth, his Religion of Protest- 
ants a Safe Way to Salvation ; Ussher, his 
Chronology; Bunyan, his Pilgrim's Progress; 
and Milton, his Reformation in England, as 
well as all that can be written for the Liberty 



PROGRESS OF THE AGE. 75 

of Unlicensed Printing. The founding of 
Southold was, moreover, in the times of Bo- 
chart and Selden, of Guido and Rubens, of Van 
Dyke and Domenicheno; but not of these, 
and such as these only ; for it was also the 
times of Hampden and of CromwelL 

We sometimes boast of our own progress ; 
but the last three hundred years have seen no 
quarter of a century of greater relative ad- 
vancement than the years wherein the New 
Haven towns were under the government of 
the General Court for the Jurisdi6lion. . The 
discoveries, inventions, and improvements^ 
then, were as remarkable, and as important to 
the people, as those which we admire and 
praise most highly at the present day. 

In England, the people had gained posses- 
sion of those immense advantages which had 
accrued from the marvelous transformation 
produced by the publication and lawful use of 
the Bible in their own tongue ; and then the 
half century from 1638 to 1688 saw the great 
uprising of liberty ; the long civil war ; the be- 
heading of the King, and the overthrow of 
royalty ; the formation of the republican com- 
monwealth ; the abolition of the hierarchy ; 
the supremacy of Presbyterianism first, and 



76 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

then of Independency in the councils of Church 
and State ; the prevaiHng fear of future insta- 
biHty ; the restoration of monarchy ; the re-es- 
tabHshment of prelacy; the revival of popery; 
and the consequent and successful revolution 
for the banishment of the papal power, and 
for the security of civil and religious freedom 
in England. Then English literature, advanc 
ing from the immaturity and grossness of 
Elizabeth's age, disclosed the great names of 
Cowley and Milton, Jeremy Taylor and John 
Bunyan, Lightfoot and Clarendon, Baxter and 
Owen, Barrow and Tillotson, and that other 
name, greater than any contemporary prelate's, 
that is, John Howe. All these and more were 
contemporaries of Southold's first Pastor. 

And other influences were at work to affe6l 
the charadler of men who were most of all 
open-eyed, spiritually minded, and fond of 
liberty; (and such were the first settlers of 
this place); for the country, of which the 
British King was a native, had taken the Cov- 
enanter's Oath two years before Puritanism 
struck its roots into the soil of the east end 
of Long Island. 

The age was full of enterprise. It was in 
1640 that Englishmen gained their first foot- 



THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE; "j^ 

hold in India ; and within the Hfetime of South- 
old, Victoria's present Empire in the East has 
grown from a few acres without inhabitants 
to a magnitude so vast that the Empress of 
India now reigns over one fifth of the whole 
population of the globe. It is not always the 
case, that 

" Westward the course of empire lakes its way." 

For the English spirit of adventure seeks its 
obje6ls in every diredlion ; and it has never 
been greater or bolder than in the days of 
Southold's early history, when the frailest 
barks that ever sailed the ocean — crafts of 
forty or fifty tons only, (vessels that would 
now be called small sloops) ; but manned by 
the most daring mariners that ever drew a sail 
or turned a rudder — flitted to and fro over the 
waves of the Atlantic, like clouds across the 
face of heaven, while larger vessels of the 
same restless nation were in every commer- 
cial city and harbor of the world. Among 
this energetic people, the spirit of discovery; 
the desire of wealth ; the fascination of adven- 
ture; the social freedom of a new country; 
and the confli6ls of religious and political par- 
ties, were all a6live in sending traders and 
adventurers, as well as religious reformers and 



78 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

devotees of liberty, to this Western Continent. 
England especially was a swarming hive ; and 
the most industrious bees that gather honey 
can also sting when they are improperly dis- 
turbed and hindered in their work. Tens of 
thousands of these vigorous Englishmen had 
already made their way across the ocean to 
New England alone, before the meeting of the 
Long Parliament, which convened a fortnight 
after the Rev. John Youngs gathered his 
Church anew in this place. It was a Parlia- 
ment which proved to be perhaps the most 
influential political body that ever assembled 
for legislation in Great Britain. 



PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. JOHN YOUNGS— Continued. 

1640 — 1672. 



CHAPTER II. 

It was in these circumstances, and subjeft 
to these influences, with the best motives, and 
pure reUgion for their chief obje6l, that the 
first settlers of Southold laid the foundations 
of their Church and Town upon the Word of 

God. 

While they were establishing their relig- 
ious and political institutions, and guarding 
their freedom in both their Church and com- 
monwealth with the utmost prudence, fore- 
sight andcircumspe6lion, they were also care- 
ful and busy in promoting their material in- 
terests. They had examined the soil under 
their feet and the sky above their heads, and 
chosen the site of their settlement with the 
greatest knowledge and skill. Unlike the 
planters of Southampton, they were not con- 



82 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD* 

Strained to change their location at the end of 
a few years. They placed the centre of their 
plantation where it is in some measure shel- 
tered from the winds of the icy winter by the 
high bluff on the north of it, and where the 
southern breezes of the summer come to it 
not only from the more distant sea, without 
its fogs, but also tempered by a succession of 
salt water bays and streams. They planted 
it where it is conveniently accessible from the 
harbor putting up from the deep, broad and 
beautiful Peconic Bay, and from the head of 
the harbor they opened a road running near- 
ly north and rising gently to the slightly un- 
dulating plain, eminently suitable for their 
purpose, at no great distance from the water 
and extending from Peconic Bay to Long Is- 
land Sound. Then, at right angles with this 
road, they laid out the main street of the vil- 
lage, running a tew points south of west. 
The first lot on the south side of the main 
street became the minister's house-home lot ; 
the one opposite, the lawyer's. The house- 
home lots of the other settlers were along 
each side of the street, wherever, it would 
seem, each man's lot happened to fall. But 
the allotment of land was no bar to the sale 



PLAX OF THE VILLAGE. 83 

or exchange of real property among them- 
selves. Such exchanges for convenience or 
other causes were common. The street ran 
almost in a right line about half a mile, and 
then making an obtuse angle it continued di- 
rectly south, some third of a mile, to the head 
of a stream which puts up westerly from the 
Town harbor ; but which, at this point, was fed 
so freely by fresh springs as to afford sweet 
and healthful drink for the cattle. At an ear- 
ly day, the street was extended east\vard from 
the harbor road ; and allotments of land for 
tillage and of meadow for pasture in summer, 
and supplies of hay for cattle in winter, were 
made from time time to the freemen ; for the 
people increased from year to year. In the 
''Historical Sketch of Southold Town" by 
Albertson Case, Esq., it is said: "Constant 
accessions and additions of new settlers were 
occurring in the years immediately following 
the first settlement. Of these first 3'ears the 
Town has no official record. There was a 
book of records covering that time as appears 
from the records still in existence, but no one 
knows aught of it now. 

" Liber A of our Town Records begins with 
the date 1651, and quite naturally the record 



84 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

of each man's home-lot and out lands Is the 
first subje6l embraced in the book. These 
home-lots were allotted among the settlers, 
and most of them are described as contain- 
ing four acres more or less. Some of the 
later allotments were subje61: to the condition 
that the grantee should build upon them with- 
in three years. 

''This Is the way the record begins : 'Anno 
Domini, 1 65 1, Breefe records of all the In- 
habitants accommodations herein as follow- 
eth videt Impris. The Reverend Mr. John 
Youngs, Pastor of the Church of Christ In 
Southold, aforesaid, his home-lot, with the 
meadow thereunto adjoynlnge, conteyning by 
estimation seaven acres, more or less, bound- 
ed,' &c." This lot was on the southwest cor- 
ner where the road from the harbor joined the 
main street. Just across the street and north 
of the Pastor's was the house-home-lot of 
William Wells, Esq. Barnabas Morton's lots 
were on the northwest and northeast corners 
of the main street and Horton's lane, where 
Mr. David P. Horton and Ira Hull Tuthlll, 
Esq., now live. The Southold Savings Bank 
and the Post Office stand on the site of John 
Budd's home-lot, now the property and resi- 



EARLY HOME-LOTS. 85 

dence of Jonathan W. Huntting, the Post 
Master and Justice of the Peace of Southold. 
Richard Benjamin Hved on the south side of 
the street immediately west of the church-lot 
and burying-ground. He was the first sex- 
ton. Capt. John Underhill's home-lot was 
north of the street and on the hill west of Mr. 
David T. Conklin's present residence. The 
home-lot of Thomas Mapes, who was a land- 
surveyor, was the site of Mr. Gilder S. Conk- 
lin's present residence, and Barnabas Wines's 
home-lot was on the opposite side of the street 
near the present residence of Elder Edward 
Huntting. Thomas Terry's was south of 
Wines*s, and Philemon Dickerson's lot was 
where Elder Hiram J. Terry's residence now 
stands. Mr. William Y. Fithian's residence is 
on the original site of Thomas Moore's lot, 
and Mr. Moore's son Benjamin bought the 
land and probably the present Case House at 
the corner of the main street and the north 
road to Greenport. Henry Case's lot includ- 
ed the site of Mrs. Beulah Goldsmith's pres- 
ent residence. On Charles Glover's original 
lot now stands the residence built by J. Wick- 
ham Case, Esq., at present owned and occu- 
pied by Col. Thomas Carroll, Register of 



86 HISTORY OF SOUTHOI.D. 

Brooklyn. On the western branch of the 
Town Creek, or Head of the Harbor, seems 
to have lived Joseph Youngs, who was, Hke 
Charles Glover, a mariner. The remains of 
Glover's wharf were recently in existence ; 
and Joseph Youngs also probably built one, 
for he was a wealthy shipmaster. Before his 
settlement In Southold, he had been a^live, as 
the Master of the " Love," in conveying pas- 
sengers from England to America. He ob- 
tained lands at Salem, Massachusetts, in 
1639; but he became one of the early settlers 
of Southold. In his maritime and mercantile 
business, he was in the next generation suc- 
ceeded by Col. Isaac Arnold, whose store- 
house was at the Head of the Harbor. He 
was a ship owner; was appointed by the Dutch 
to be schout or sheriff of the Five Eastern 
Towns of Long Island in 1673, but speedily 
resigned; was one of the patentees of the 
Town in 1676; and from that time until 1703 
a judge or justice of the peace, being the 
Judge of the County from 1693 to 1706. He 
was in 1691 appointed one of the Judges of 
Jacob Leisler, the leader of the popular party 
in New York city, who was condemned and 
put to death there for a6ling as Governor of 



COL. ARNOLD, 87 

the Province after the Revokition in England 
and the flight of King James II. Col. Arnold 
was probably the earliest slave owner in 
Southold. He died November 7, 1706. 

Col. John Youngs was Col. Arnold's near- 
est neighbor. In the second generation of 
this place he was the foremost man in South- 
oW, and no other man on Long Island was so 
prominent. He was the eldest son of the 
Rev. John Youngs, Minister of the Word and 
first settler of Southold. Col. Younofs lived 
in the house which he built on the land di- 
reclly north of Col. Arnold. It is now owned 
and occupied as his residence by Mr. Richard 
L. Peters, who some twenty-five years since 
took down the northern half of it, and made 
some other changes, the better to adapt it to 
the present mode of living; but the southern 
half of this noble two-story double residence 
stands very much as it was eredled more than 
two hundred years ago. Col. Youngs was 
born about 1623, and died on the 12th of 
April, 1697. He early became the master of 
a vessel, and was a6live in the hostilities 
against the Dutch, and when he was thirty 
years old he and his vessel were seized at 
New Amsterdam (New York). Having giv- 



88 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

en bonds, he was discharged the next year, 
and was appointed by the Commissioners of 
the United Colonies of New England to 
cruise with his vessel in the North Sea (Long 
Island Sound) as a part of the naval force of 
the Union. He was aftive in this service for 
two years. He subsequently represented 
Southold at different times in the General 
Court of the New Haven Jurisdiction, and 
afterwards in the Legislature of the Connect- 
icut Colony. He was specially sent to the 
latter colony in 1663 to ask aid against the 
Dutch. The next year he colle6led and orga- 
nized a force of Southold militia to aid in the 
capture of New Amsterdam (New York), 
and the following year, 1665, the capture hav- 
ing been made, he was one of the representa- 
tives of Southold in the first Assembly at 
Hempstead, under the Duke of York, when 
the Duke's Laws were formally adopted for 
the eovernment of the Province of the Duke. 
In 1666 he obtained from the Indians a new 
deed for the territory of the Town, probably 
including both larger grants and clearer de- 
marcations than had been obtained in 1640. 

In 1680 he became the Sheriff of York- 
shire, which included all Long Island and 



COL. YOUNGS. 89 

Richmond and Westchester counties. Six 
years later, he* sold to John Youngs, Jr., the 
beautiful property known as Calves Neck, ly- 
ing between the Head of the Harbor and 
Dickerson's Creek, now the land owned and 
occupied by Col. Thomas S. Lester, on which 
the latter built his present residence. Col. 
Youngs was, at the time that he made this sale, 
a member of the Government Council of the 
Province of New York under Governor Don- 
gan, the most enlightened and far-seeing of 
the Royal Governors of the Province. He 
was a Member of the Government Council 
nearly every year from 1683 ^^ ^^97- 

He, as well as his nearest neighbor, Col. 
Arnold, was appointed by Governor Slough- 
ter one of the Judges for the trial of Jacob 
Leisler. In 1693, when he was seventy years 
of age, he was the Colonel of a militia regi- 
ment of nine companies, including five hun- 
dred and thirty- three men. A few months 
before he died, he made his will, which was 
proved in 1698, the year after he died at sev- 
enty-five years of age. 

The home-lots of many of the early settlers 
can now be indicated as we have seen ; but on 
account of the loss of the earliest Records our 



90 HISTORY OF SOlTtttOLf). 

knowledge of the history from 1639 ^^ 1^51 
is fragmentary. After this date the Records 
of the Town are more full and orderly. They 
give the most vivid representation of the com- 
mon and faithful life of the Puritan Plantation. 
They show, for instance, how, as the area of 
cultivation increased, lands must be divided 
by lot among the freemen and common own- 
ers ; how the meets and bounds of the divi- 
dends, or divided parts of the land, must be 
recorded with their situation, east, west, north, 
south, between whom and in what place ; how 
they must be cleared and fenced in case the 
timber should be cut ; how each man's trees 
are legally prote6led against the axe of every 
other man ; and how lots and fields for culti- 
vation must be inclosed. For example : 

''Januarie 5th 1657. The neck of land 
called the calves neck lyinge on part of the 
south side of the Towne shalbee layed out and 
apportioned to every man his due proporcon 
thereof by the first of March next ; and every 
inhabitant takeing upp such proporcon, shall 
cleere the same, as they usually doe theire 
planting land, within a yeare after the laying 
out thereof under penalty of forfeiture of the 
same to the Townes use." 



feAkLY LAWS. g\ 

Under date three months later is this record: 
" March the last 1658. Itt was then agreed 
upon at a meeting of the ffreemen that Thomas 
Mapes shall lay out the Calves neck, every 
man his proportion, as it shall fall by lott to 
him, and for and in consideration of the same, 
the said Thomas shall have his own share and 
portion, next at the reere of his own lot." 

The Records contain the laws determining 
when woods may be fired to improve the pas- 
ture, and what privileges should be given for 
building a mill on the point of Hallock's Neck, 
near where Mr. Jonathan Barnes Terry built 
and owns the present wharf and landing for 
steamers. They show what kind of a ladder 
each inhabitant must keep, to enable him 
easily and rapidly to reach the top of his 
thatch-covered house in case of fire ; who 
should be free from training, watching and 
warding ; how the Recorder must keep a per- 
manent record of the levies and payments of 
the Town ; how the Constable must be paid 
for gathering Town and Minister's rates year 
by year; and how respect for rank, wealth 
and other considerations must control the ac- 
tion of the Committees appointed from time 
to time to seat the Meeting House : that is, 



92 i^lSTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

to assign to each person his seat in it accord- 
ing to rank, age, dignity, office, &c. — which 
continued to be done as lately at least as 
A. D. 1797. They also make known in what 
kind of meetings of the freemen the constable, 
sele^lmen, and other officers were annually 
ele61;ed ; how any particular duties must be 
performed by those to whomsoever the select- 
men should assign them ; how Sabbath-breach 
must be fined seven and a half bits of nine 
pence each; swearing, one and a half bits — a 
second offence, three shillings; and how at 
length this sliding scale made one offender's 
fine eight shillings; for the people of those 
days, though not knowing how to exclude 
evil entirely, yet well knew how to make vice 
and crime pay taxes, and not press as a heavy 
burden upon the shoulders of the virtuous. 
// is one of the lost arts. The early Records 
also disclose how slander was punished, and 
how the place was kept free from the bodies 
and odors of dead animals; though I find no 
law in relation to the removal of dead fish 
from the surface of the ground. 

The Records make it plain how the Town 
street was maintained in good condition and 
other highways kept in order; how proper 



cow KEEPING. 93 

regulations were made for the wharf which 
John Youngs, mariner, was permitted to build 
at the Head of the Harbor, near the present 
residence of Mr. Francis Landon. 

The following is a specimen of the local 
legislation, as well as an illustration of the 
record thereof: 

*'July 1659. It was then in like manner 
ordered that from the publicacon hereof no 
working cattle bee putt to foode on the com'ons 
to disturbe the cowes, and for prevencon 
thereof, they are to go under the hand of a 
sufficient keeper, and in case any doe other- 
wise, they are thereby lyable to pay for one 
ox so taken every tyme 1 2 d. The same to 
continue until the'nd of Indean harvest, this 
yeare and every other yeare hereafter from 
the beginninge of cow keepinge till the'nd of 
Indean harvest under the same penalty until 
a pasture be provided to prevent the aforesaid 
inconveniency." 

The Records show that on the 3d of April 
1679 the Town voted a site for a wind mill to 
Joshua Horton, Abraham Corey and Daniel 
Terry, the mill to be at Pine Neck, upon the 
hill [now the property of Mr. G. Wells Phillips] 
over against Peter Dickerson's house [now 



94 HISTORY OF SOUTHOI,D. 

the site of Elder Hiram J. Terry's dwelling]. 
That is, the mill was to stand where the wind 
mill of Mr. Rene Villefeu stood when it burn- 
ed down, a few years since. 

On the iith of March, 1667-8, there was 
an adjustment of boundaries made with the 
Town of Southampton. See Town Records, 
Book A, page 135. 

On the 13th of March, 1 670-1, John Budd 
sold to Isaac Arnold one-eighth of the ketch 
" Thomas and John " for forty-five pounds of 
current pay. Said ketch was on a voyage to 
Barbadoes. The burden of the ship was rated 
at forty-four tons. See Book A. page 143. 
There were few men in Southold at that time 
who severally had an estate worth as much as 
this sloop of forty-four tons burden. Two 
years later, and probably at this date, the price 
of merchandise or produce often used in barter 
was in Southold as follows : 

Barrel of pork ^03-10-00 

Barrel of beef 02-05-00 

Bushel of summer wheat 00-04-06 
Bushel ot pease 00-03-06 

The Records show some curious transac- 
tions. For instance: May 15th, 1 671, Edward 
Petty, son-in-law of the Minister, bequeathed 



LOGAL STATUTES. 95 

his son James, aged nine years, to Thomas 
Moore, Senior, and his son Joseph, four years 
of age, to Nathaniel Moore. Book A, page 
146. 

The Town Records also make known what 
laws were ena(5led for the preservation and 
control of boats, canoes and skiffs, as well as 
for pasturing cattle, sheep and goats ; re- 
straining hogs ; prohibiting the sale or gift of 
dogs to Indians, and also rum and arms with- 
out an order from a magistrate and a full rec- 
ord of the whole transa6lion. They also show 
what premiums were paid for killing wolves, 
foxes and other kind of " varment," and that 
these premiums year by year made a conspic- 
uous figure in the financial estimates and ex- 
penses of the Town. 

The local enactments on record also pre- 
scribe the way in which the ratables must be 
presented to the proper officer by each inhab- 
itant, and payment be made within fourteen 
days after the publication of the rate. 

The laws of the place were evidently made 
by and for a pious, virtuous, prudent, indus- 
trious and forehanded community. They state 
how the Montauk Indians must be protected, 



96 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

and how trespassers with guns must have 
their guns seized and forfeited. 

These specimens give an idea of the local 
legislation of the place while it was under the 
New Haven Jurisdi6lion' from 1640 to 1662, 
and while church members only were voters, 
that is, while the Church which founded the 
Town also governed it. The earliest ele6lion 
of Townsmen or Sele6lmen of which I have 
found a record, was made on the eleventh day 
of December, 1656. At that time '* William 
Wells, Esq., Lieut. John Budd, Barnabas Hor- 
ton, William Furrier, and Matthias Corwin 
were appointed to order Town affairs accord- 
ing to order in that case provided until the 
appointed time for a new ele6lion." 

A few years later the number of the Sele61:- 
men was enlarged so as to include the Con- 
stable and eight chosen men. 

How carefully they guarded their religion 
and their liberty and their morals may be 
seen in this record, namely : 

'' Januarie 19th 1654. It was then ordered 
and agreed that no inhabitant in Southold 
shall lett or sett or sell wholly or in part any 
of his accommodacons therein or within the 
utmost bounds thereof to any person or per- 



SELF- PROTECTION. 97 

sons not being a legall townsman, without the 
approbation of the ffreemen in a public meet- 
ing of theires, as also that the Towne have 
the tender of the sale of house or land and a 
full months space provided to return an an- 
swer." 

They thought the open and unoccupied 
continent broad enough for the habitation of all 
disturbers, without the intrusion of unwel- 
come men into the harmonious communion of 
these faithful worshippers of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. And who shall gainsay their right to 
prote6l their own freedom and prosperity in 
the midst of the wilderness to which they had 
come for the sake of pure religion and civil 
liberty ? Happily, they knew their rights and 
how to defend them, and so they soon made 
the wilderness glad for themselves and for 
their posterity, and the solitary place to show 
its fruitfulness under the culture of a pious 
and prosperous congregation. 

The Highest Authority says, that ''Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word of God;" but History shows that people 
and nations, even in Christian lands, rise very 
slowly and gradually to the standard of life 
and condu6l which God's Word requires, 
9 



98 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

There is not only the depressing power of 
every man's evil heart ; but there are also the 
hindrances of the old, unjust and perhaps, 
heathen prejudices, associations and institu- 
tions. Precedents and usages and customs,, 
which have no foundation in righteousness- 
and godliness, often obstruct the improve- 
ment of the people, and hinder the advance- 
ment of virtue and piety in human hearts and 
human society. He is a benefa6lor of man- 
kind who takes these impediments out of the 
way, and opens a fair field for the progress of 
men in knowledge, comfort, justice, and 
heartiness in the worship of God and service 
of humanity. 

The early settlers of this place and their 
associates made an immense step in this di- 
re6lion when they determined that in all their 
civil affairs, to which it was applicable, as well 
as in their religious duties and worship, they 
would be governed by the Word of God. 

By making the Bible their rule of judica- 
ture, in preference to the English statutes, or 
the Roman code, they gained the great advan- 
tage of a body of laws most excellent for 
many other qualities, and especially for mild- 
ness and intejligibleness. They reduced cap- 



ADVANTAGES OF THEIR CODE. 99 

ital offences to less than twenty crimes. How 
great the change is seen in this fa6l, that even 
so recently as the time when Sir Samuel 
Romilly, about 1807, began his efforts to 
ameliorate the criminal laws of England, these 
laws made nearly three hundred offences pun- 
ishable with death ; and no longer ago than 
1785, the eminent moralist, William Paley, 
thought it not unworthy to employ his ut- 
most genius and skill in apologizing for this 
sanguinary barbarity. 

Furthermore, their adoption of the Bible 
for the rule of their condu6l with each other 
in their civil affairs, gave them many other 
benefits besides this of diminishing the num- 
ber and the severity of punishments. For m- 
stance, it afforded the people generally a 
knowledge of the more important laws. For 
almost every man in Southold doubtless had 
the Bible in his house, and read it, or heard 
it read, every day ; but it is not likely that 
more than one of the early planters here had 
a trustworthy knowledge of the statute laws 
of England. They might, while living under 
these statutes, commit any one of a hundred 
capital offences without knowing that it was 
such a crime; but with the Bible in their 



lOO HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD* 

hands, and heads and hearts, they were not 
Hkely to be guilty of idolatry, witchcraft, 
blasphemy, murder, beastiality, sodomy, adul- 
tery, incest, rape, man-stealing, false witness 
in a capital case, treason, incorrigible dis- 
obedience to parents, incorrigible burglary or 
theft, and high-handed and presumptuous pro- 
fanation of the Sabbath. Most certainly they 
were not likely to commit these offences 
through ignorance of their evil chara6ter ; yet 
it seems that these fifteen a61s of wickedness 
and vice are the only offences which the laws 
of the Bible ever regarded as capital crimes. 
What a contrast between the Bible's fifteen 
and the English statutes' three hundred ! 

How carefully these Puritan Christians 
guarded the rights and promoted the welfare 
of men may be seen in what may be called 
the Bill of Rights, which they adopted for the 
prote61:ion of every man within the bounds 
of the Jurisdi61ion. This law declares, that 
" No man's life shall be taken away, no man's 
honor or good name shall be stained, no man's 
person shall be imprisoned, banished, or other- 
wise punished, no man shall be deprived of 
his wife or children, no man's goods or estate 
shall be taken from him under color of law or 



EDUCATION. lOl 

countenance of authority, unless it be by vir- 
tue or equity of some express law ot this jur- 
isdiftion, established by the General Court, 
and sufficiently published, or for want of a 
law in any particular case, by the word ol 
God. No man shall be put to death, for any 
offence, without the testimony of two wit- 
nesses at least, or that which is equivalent 

thereto." 

Public Education is one of three or four 
main interests of the people which will prob- 
ably decide the next Presidential eledion in 
the United States, and affed the history of 
the whole country for good or evil dunng 
many years to come. On this subjed, we 
may all go to school to the first planters ol 
Southold and their associates, and learn from 
them some wise and Christian lessons to 
guide our conduct in these days. Their lib- 
eral and enlightened charaAer is held forth in 
the faa, that all parents and masters were re- 
quired to improve such means "that all then- 
children and apprentices, as they grow capa- 
ble, might through God's blessing attain at 
least so much as to be able duly to read the 
Scriptures, and other good and profitable print- 
ed books in the English tongue, being their 



I02 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

native language ; and, in some competent 
measure, to understand the main grounds and 
principles of Christian Religion necessary to 
salvation ; and to give a due answer to such 
plain and ordinary questions as might, by 
proper persons, be propounded concerning 
the same." If parents and masters failed to 
do this, their children and apprentices were 
taken from them and committed to persons 
who would be faithful to the parents' or the 
masters' trust, as we do now in the case of lit- 
tle negle6led vagrants, and in the case of chil- 
dren whose parents put them prematurely or 
excessively into fa (Stories to perform unhealthy 
tasks. 

Furthermore, the founders of this place urge 
their posterity to the performance of duty by 
their zeal and labor for the higher and spirit- 
ual welfare and education of the people. They 
had a law to this effedl : The word of God, as 
it is contained in the Holy Scriptures, is a 
pure and precious light, by God in his free 
and rich grace given to his people, to guide 
and dire6l them in safe paths to everlasting 
peace. The preaching of the same in a way 
of due exposition and application, by such as 
God doth furnish and send, is, through the 



J^CRIPTURAL WORSHIP. I63 

presence and power of the Holy Ghost, the 
chief ordinary means appointed of God for 
conversion, edification and salvation. None 
shall behave himself contemptuously toward 
the word preached, or any minister thereof, 
called and faithfully dispensing the same, in 
any congregation. Every person, according 
to the mind of God, shall duly resort and at- 
tend thereunto upon the Lord's days, at least, 
and also upon days of public fasting and 
thanksgiving. 

Provision was also made for the organiza- 
tion of additional churches wherever needful, 
and also that the ordinances of Christ might 
be upheld, and a due maintenance of the min- 
istry continued, according to the rule : " Let 
him that is taught in the word communicate 
unto him that teacheth in all good things." 
Should this fail to be done in a free way with- 
out rating, then every inhabitant must be as- 
sessed according to his visible estate, with due 
moderation, and in equal proportion with his 
neighbors. 

Under this law an interesting case arose in 
the early history of the Town. On the 6th of 
October, 1657, the Court of Plymouth, New 
England, banished Humphrey Norton. He 



t04 HISTORY O^ SOUTHoLt). 

came hither ; but on account of his gross mis- 
condu6l in Southold he was soon after sent 
away from this place to New Haven. His 
trial commenced there on the loth of March, 
1657, old style — 1658 new style. 

The charges preferred against him were : 

1. That he hath grievously and in manifold 
wise traduced, slandered and reproached Mr. 
Youngs, Pastor of the Church at Southold, in 
his good name and the honor due to him for 
his work's sake, together with his ministry 
and all our ministers and ordinances. 

2. That he hath endeavored to seduce the 
people from their due attendance upon the 
ministry and the sound do61:rines of our re- 
ligion settled in this colony. 

3. That he hath endeavored to spread sun- 
dry heretical opinions ; and that [too] under 
expressions which hold forth some degree ot 
blasphemy, and to corrupt the minds of the 
people therein. 

4. That he hath endeavored to vilify or 
nullify the just authority of the magistracy 
and government here settled. 

5. That in all these miscarriages he hath 
endeavored to disturb the peace of this juris- 
di6lion. 

On these charges, he was tried and found 

guilty ; sentenced to pay ten pounds ; to be 



RECORDS REQUIRED. IO5 

Otherwise punished ; and excluded from the 
Jurisdi(5lion. 

The founders of Southold were far in ad- 
vance of their age in respe6l to pubHc records. 
At the present time, soldiers and sailors only 
can make noncupative walls. The sale of 
real estate cannot be made without a written 
deed and a record of that deed in the proper 
office. The sale of a large amount of per- 
sonal property cannot be made without a writ- 
ten agreement, or the delivery of the goods 
by the seller to the buyer in whole or in part. 
But there was no requirement of this kind in 
England when Southold was settled. Real 
estate could be sold there, and any man could 
make his will, without a scrap of writing, as 
lately as the reign of Charles II. It is there- 
fore remarkable that the Jurisdidlion to which 
Southold freely joined itself and firmly ad- 
hered, required every bargain, sale, grant, 
conveyance, mortgage of any house, land, 
rent, or other hereditament, to be acknow- 
ledged before some court or magistrate, and 
recorded by the proper officer in a book kept 
for the purpose. We should moreover be 
grateful, that it was also ordered, that every 
birth, marriage and death should be recorded 



I06 MISTORY OF SOUTHOLEJ; 

within a month after the event; and every 
man had Hberty to record, in the pubHc reg- 
ister of any court, any testimony given upon 
oath in the same court, or before two magis- 
trates, or any deed or evidence legally con- 
firmed, there to remain /";/ perpetMani rei 
mefnoriam. Every inhabitant had liberty to 
search and view any such public records or 
registers, and to have a copy thereof, attested 
by the proper officer, on paying the ciue fee. 
It was also a law that every trial or legal pro- 
ceeding should be briefly and distind:ly re- 
corded, the better to prevent after mistakes 
and other inconveniences. 

The Christian men who came hither into 
the wilderness for Religion, had no mean and 
narrow views of the nature and requirements 
of religion. It was, for example, a part of 
their religion to make a better distribution of 
property among heirs at law than had been 
previously made. When a man died without 
a will, they gave at least one-third of his es- 
tate to his widow, if he left one, and two- 
thirds, at most, to the children, the eldest son 
taking a double portion, unless otherwise or- 
dered by the court. When the heirs were a 
widow and one child, each took a third, and 



DEALINGS WITH INDIANS. IO7 

the Other third was divided between them in 
whatever parts the court deemed best. But 
the scriptural causes for divorce were allowed. 
The laws in respecl to the neighboring 
heathen show a kindly and generous Christian 
disposition ; and this, too, though the pres- 
ence of the savages was a great inconvenience 
in many ways. No private person was allow- 
ed to purchase or truck any land of any Indian 
on the Island. The people in common paid 
the Indians for every acre of land which they 
occupied, and all private dealing with the red 
men in real estate was stri6lly forbidden. No 
one could sell implements of war to them with- 
out an order of court for a certain quantity 
at a specific time and on plain terms; and a 
full record of every such trade, with all the 
particulars, must be made by the magistrate 
who gave the leave to trade. If any one took 
a pawn or pledge of any Indian, as security 
for anything sold or lent, he could not sell 
the pawn without the consent of the Indian or 
an order of the court. In all dealings with 
the heathen, intoxicating drinks were put on 
the same footing with weapons of war. The 
fathers knew that rum was the leader in riot, 
robbery, revenge and murder, 



I08 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

But all their prudence and precautions did 
not save them from the expense of much time 
and money, in order to defend themselves, es- 
pecially in times of national war between 
Dutch and English. They found it needful 
to require every man from sixteen to sixty 
years of age to have a good serviceable gun, 
always kept fit in every way for use, with all 
the needful accoutrements, including a good 
sword and plenty of ammunition. It was the 
duty of the chief military officer of the Town 
to see that every man was well furnished with 
arms, and that every man trained at least six 
days each year. One fourth of the whole 
number were required to attend public wor- 
ship fully armed every Lord's Day; and such 
as could come, on Lecture Days ; to be at the 
meeting house at latest before the second 
drum had left beating, with their arms com- 
plete, their guns ready charged, their match 
for their match-lock guns, and flints ready fit- 
ted to their fire-lock guns, with shot and pow- 
der for at least five shots, beside the charge 
in their guns. The sentinel also, and they 
that walk the round, were required to have 
their matches lighted during the time of the 
public worship, if their guns were to be fired 



HONOR DUE TO PARENTS. IO9 

with matches and not with flint locks. Dur- 
ing the rehgious service in the church building, 
their guns were placed in racks standing near 
the door. One of these racks, used here two 
hundred years since, has been presented to 
the Long Island Historical Society, and may 
be seen among its choicest antiquarian pos- 
sessions. 

It was under these and other heavy burdens, 
that the fathers worshipped here. It was not 
without faith, and fortitude, and prayer, and 
peril, that they prepared this place for our 
comfort and enjoyment. But there are some 
children who care very little for their parents' 
toils in their behalf, or even for their parents 
themselves. They are only eager to please 
and gratify their own selfishness with what 
their parents have earned and given them. 
But such meanness and baseness will be far 
from every noble soul ; and honor should be 
given to the fathers, that the land which they 
made productive and attra6tive, and fruitful 
for the sustenance and delight of their poster- 
ity, may remain to support and bless their 
children for ever. If we reproach those who . 
are ungrateful and negligent towards their 

natural parents, how much more should we 
10 



I lO HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

reproach ourselves unless we show gratitude 
and honor towards our spiritual ancestors ! 

The holiest motives had impelled them to 
flee from oppression, and to acquire liberty 
and purity of religion for themselves and their 
children, no matter at what cost of hardships 
and suffering, nor how carefully they must 
guard the boon. For the sake of so great a 
good, they were determined to be unceasingly 
vigilant, and to close every avenue whereby 
their foes might enter and gain a foothold 
among them. That their precautions and 
watchfulness were judicious, and even neces- 
sary, is all too evident. Here are, for instance, 
the Private Instructions which Charles II. 
gave, on the 23d of April, 1664, ^^ Nichols, 
Carr, Cartwright, and Maverick, Commission- 
ers to subdue the Dutch, to establish bounda- 
ries, and to transa6l other important matters 
in America. Among other equally detestable 
things, the king says: ''Nobody can doubt 
but that we could look upon it as the great- 
est blessing God Almighty can confer upon 
us in this world that He would reduce all our 
subje6ts in all our dominions to one faith and 
one way of worship with us." 

This statement of the monarch accords with 



CHARLES n. Ill 

the general chara6ler of this voluptuous king. 
For, " Sworn to maintain Protestantism, he 
signed a secret treaty at Dover by which he 
pledged himself to make public profession of 
the Roman Catholic religion," and when he 
was almost in the article of death, he declared 
himself a Roman Catholic, and received ex- 
treme un6lion, and the last rites of the papal 
church, at the hands of a proscribed priest, 
who was introduced by a secret passage, in 
disguise, into the king's bed-chamber. See 
New American Cyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 729. 
His desire to make all his subje6ls fully con- 
form to his own faith and worship also accords 
with the St. Bartholomew's fraud and infamy 
twenty months previous to his sending the 
Commissioners, and many other a6ls of op- 
pression at the time, whereby the people were 
deprived of the services of thousands of the 
best and purest Christian Ministers, who were 
compelled to leave their homes and churches, 
because they could not with good conscience 
obey the new and wicked laws. The King, 
through his Secretary of State, in his Private 
Instru6tions to the Commissioners, speaks of 
the Puritans in the New World as '' persons 
who separated themselves from their own 



I I 2 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

country, and the religion established, princi- 
pally (if not only) that they might enjoy an- 
other way of worship, presented or declared 
unto them by their own consciences." See 
Brodhead's New York Documents, Vol. 3, 

p. 59- 

To the same class of conscientious and faith- 
ful ministers, the Rev. John Youngs undoubt- 
edly belonged. He came here to minister 
the word of God free from the control of un- 
godly and despotic men, and to enjoy with 
devout Christians of the same faith the liberty 
of the gospel in purity and peace. He and 
his people did not come without a purpose 
into a country whose only inhabitants were a 
few wild and roaming savages. They did 
not come into such a country with the inten- 
tion of oppressing, injuring, or even disturb- 
ing any human being. They came to find a 
shelter from wrong, and to provide a peaceful 
home for those who were like-minded with 
themselves. To Mr. Youngs, as the leader 
of the advance guard, his home-lot was as- 
signed near the centre of the Town, and con- 
venient to the church edifice, which was built 
in the central square and on the highest 
ground of the settlement, as well as near the 



FIRST PASTORS DEATH, Itl, 

homes of the principal citizens. His posses- 
sions were ample, in comparison with those of 
his neighbors and parishioners. His name, 
as we have seen, with the description of his 
real estate, is entered first of all in the Rec- 
ords of the Town. 

Shortly before his death, he conveyed most 
of his lands to his children. His library at 
the time of his death was nearly half as valu- 
able as all his household furniture, and one 
sixth as valuable as his dwelling house and 
lands. 

He died February 24, 1672, of the new 
style. It would seem that his venerable friend, 
the good Barnabas Horton, and the saintly 
Deacon Barnabas Wines, as well as his well 
beloved wife, Mary, and we may suppose 
some or all of his children, were with him at 
or near his death. One faithful friend, his 
nearest neighbor for thirty previous years, 
William Wells, Esq., the Sheriff of Suffolk 
county, could not be present, though he had 
long held his Pastor in high regard, as the 
beautiful Records which he has left us most 
thoroughly attest. Mr. Wells departed this 
life three months and eleven days before the 
minister died. What a void was made in 



114 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

Southold by the death of these two men in 
the same winter ! Death has never made 
here, in so brief a time as one winter, another 
bereavement relatively so great. 

The first Pastor's grave was made near the 
church edifice, and on the sunny side of it. 
The wall which surrounds the grave is sub- 
stantial, and supports a massive horizontal 
slab, which bears the following inscription : 

m'^ iohn yongs minister of the word and first setler 

OF THE CHVRCH OF CHRIST IN SOVTH HOVLD ON LONG ISLAND 
DECEASED THE 24. OF FEBRVARY IN THE YEARE 
OF OVR LORD 167^ AND OF HIS AGE 74 

HERE LIES THE MAN WHOSE DOCTRINE LIFE WELL KNOWEN 
DID SHEW HE SOVGHT GRISTS HONOVR NOT HIS OWEN 
IN WEAKNES SOWN IN POWER RAISD SHALL BE 
BY CHRIST FROM DEATH TO LIFE ETERNALLY 



FIRST PASTORS ESTATE. Ilj 

The following copy of legal papers presents 
a pi6lure of the early times in Southold : 
'*The Inventory of pastr Youngs estate. 
In wooden ware & 2 old bedsteads^ j £, s. d. 
& old cheist & 3 chayers 2 tables > 02-00-00 
& a forme & boute & tray J 

2 kettles 2 potts hake & pot hook 03-00-0O 
in peuter 02-00-00 

2 old beds & boulsters blankets 

one rugg & curtins & valancings 04-00-00 
lyning & sheets & pillobans 02-10-00 

5 oxen & one tame steire & one cow 

6 2 of 2 year old, and one half 

steere of one yearling 27-10-00 

one horse 03-00—00 

24 sheepe 12-00-00 

3 small swine 02-00-00 
3 chaines plow yrons & cart yrons 04-00-00 
house and land 30-00-00 
old books by Mr. Hubard prised at 05-00-00 



£ 97-00-00 
Barnabas Winds 
John Curwin 
Joshua Horton 
Jacob Core 
A true copy pr me Henry Pierson, Clark." 
''At a Court of Sessions held in Southold 
for ye East riding of Yorkshire on Long Is- 
land by his Maj'ties authority in ye eight & 
twenty yeare of ye reign of our sovereign 



T I 6 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Lord Charles ye second by ye grace of God 
of great Brittalne France & Ireland King De- 
fender of ye faith &c & in ye yeare of our 
Lord God 1675. Whereas an Inventory of 
the efire6ls of Mr. John Yongs past : of the 
Church of Christ at Southold deceased was 
presented to ye Court as also affidavit was 
made by Mr. Barnabas Wines & Mr. Barna- 
bas Horton, makeing faith yt ye sd Mr. John 
Yongs at or nere his death left all his estate 
to ye sole dispose of his wife Mris Mary 
Yongs also shee makeing sute to ye Court 
for power to administer of ye sd estate, & 
having put in sufficient standing security to 
ye Court according to law, in yt behalf : These 
are to certifie all whome it may concerne, yt 
ye sd Mris Mary Yongs, weidow & reli6^ of 
him ye sd Mr. John Yongs -deceased is by ye 
sd Court admited & confirmed to all intents 
& purposes Administratrix of all & singular 
ye goods & chatties & whatsoever estate or 
Invent he ye sd Mr. John Yongs died seased 
off, or any maner of way, rightly appertaineing 
to him & ye sd Mris Mary Yongs hath hereby 
full power as administratrix to despose of ye sd 
estate or any p'rcill therof, as shee hath occa- 
tion and ye laws of this Government alloweth. 
In ye name & by order of ye Court pr me 
Henry Person Clark of ye Session of ye 
East riding. 

The Rev. John Youngs had six children by 



FIRST PASTOR S CHILDREN. I I 7 

his first wife Anne, whose names have already 
been given, namely John, Thomas, Anne, 
Rachel, Mary, and Joseph. These were born 
in England. He subsequently married a sec- 
ond wife, Mary, who was probably a widow 
when he married her. She survived him, 
and became by his desire the sole administra- 
trix of his estate, as we have the legal records 
to attest. Besides the six elder children, he 
had a son Benjamin, who was the eldest by 
his second wife, perhaps a son Samuel, and 
certainly a son Christopher, his youngest son: 
The Rev. John Youngs was undoubtedly a 
student and teacher of the Pauline type of 
theology, though he seems to have been 
closely allied in disposition to that disciple 
whose name he bore, and whom our Lord 
specially loved. The first Southold Pastor, in 
common with many Ministers and other 
Christians of his age, in New England and else- 
where, greatly felt the influence of an able 
writer of the previous generation, the Rev. 
William Perkins, who "wrote in a much bet- 
ter style than was usual in his time," so that 
his writings were soon translated into German, 
Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. 
Our first Pastor owned and used the copy of 



I 1 8 HISTORY OF SOUTHOI.D. 

Perkins's Works which was conveyed by a 
citizen of this place to Mr. Thomas R. Trow- 
bridge, of New Haven, and presented by this 
gentleman to the New Haven Colony Histor- 
ical Society, for preservation among its treas- 
ures. It was printed in London, by the print- 
er to the University of Cambridge, in 1616, 
eleven years after the author's death.. There 
is a declaration in the Records of the First 
Church of Southold, made in the earlier half of 
its history, that this church had been " Calvin- 
istical time out of mind." This was the sys- 
tem of Perkins, and doubtless it was this system 
that our first Pastor taught, and herein he has 
been followed by all his successors in the pas- 
toral care of the First Church. 

A few feet north of the grave of the first 
Pastor is that of his eldest and most eminent 
son. Col. John Youngs, and immediately 
south of it is that of his grandson Benjamin, 
who was for many years one of the most 
prominent citizens of the Town. 

Several yards westward are the graves of 
two others of the earliest and most intelligent, 
eminent and wealthy settlers, namely : William 
Wells, Esq., and Mr. Barnabas Horton, each 
marked by a massive horizontal tomb-stone. 



TOMB OF WILLIAM WELLS. 121 

For the use of the engraving of the tomb- 
stone of WilHam Wells, Esq., the most grate- 
ful acknowlegments are due to the Rev. 
Charles Wells Hayes, Re6lor of Saint Peter's 
Church, Westfield, New York, and to his 
brother, Mr. Robert P. Hayes, of Buffalo, 
Auditor of the U. S. Express Company, these 
gentlemen being the owners of the copyright 
of the splendid volume by the former, entitled 
"William Wells of Southold and his Descend- 
ants." The accomplished author of this beau- 
tiful and richly illustrated Genealogy says, 
page 31 : 

" In the old Burial Ground of Southold, near 
the edifice (Presbyterian) which occupies the site 
of the first meeting house, and not more than ten 
or twelve yards from the west end of the Ceme- 
tery, is the tomb of William Wells, a substantial 
stru6lure of brick and covered with cement, and 
now (1876) after the lapse of two centuries, in 
perfe6l preservation, thanks to the reverent care 
of his descendant in the sixth generation, the late 
William H. Wells, of Southold. The top of the 
tomb is a single slab of dark-brown stone, five 
feet by two and a half, and four or five inches in 
thickness, completely filled by the curious inscrip- 
tion, a fac-simile of which is here given, photo- 
graphed from the rubbing taken by me 061. 13, 

1875." 

u 



122 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Barnabas Horton was often a member of the 
General Court for the Junsdi6lion — the Legis- 
lature of the Colony. His tomb-stone of blue 
slate was imported from Mouseley, Leicester- 
shire, England, the place of his birth. Mr. 
Theodore K. Horton, of Brooklyn, when he 
visited Mouseley, was much interested to find 
the tomb-stones in the cemetery there made 
of the same blue slate that marks the grave 
and attests the godly chara61er of his first an- 
cestor in America. Near the graves of Wells 
and Horton is the broad and heavy horizontal 
tomb-stone of John Conklyne, and not far 
away stands a large marble monument which 
was set up in the autumn of 1851 by the Hon. 
Mahlon Dickerson, of New Jersey, Secretary 
of the Navy in President Jackson's Cabinet, to 
commemorate Peter Dickerson and his sons, of 
Southold, from whom have descended not only 
Mahlon and his brother Philemon Dickerson, 
Governor of the State of New Jersey, but 
also the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, United 
States Senator from New York, as well as oth- 
er conspicuous citizens of our country bearing 
the name of Dickerson or Dickinson. 

The Clevelands came later. See " Geneal- 
ogy of Benjamin Cleveland, Chicago, 1879." 



THE CEMETERY. 123 

The original cemetery here might well be 
called God's acre, for it contained about one 
acre of land and was devoted to the holiest 
purposes. It was the site of the Meeting 
House for public worship, as well as the hal- 
lowed place for the burial of the dead. Used 
by men whose chief objedl: was religion, the 
Meeting House and the place of burial were 
not desecrated by their use for any of the 
more common and inferior purposes of the 
people. The cemetery, with the church edi- 
fice near its northeast corner, was the centre 
of the village, as well as the highest ground in 
the settlement. It was on the south side of 
the main street. There was formerly a street 
south of the burying ground, or central square, 
which was early devoted to the public uses of 
worship and burial. This original public 
grave yard is now the northwest corner of the 
present Church cemetery, which has been en- 
larged from time to time until it now includes 
some eight acres, about five acres having been 
added within the last thirty years. 

Near the northeast corner of this acre the 
first settlers built the first church edifice. 
The site is now marked by a locust post 
standing in a depression of the soil two or 



124 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

three feet deep. This depression indicates 
the place of a subterranean cell which was 
made when the edifice was converted Into a 
prison, In 1684. This conspicuous Indication 
in the very surface of the ground pointing out 
the site of the first Meeting House, and of 
the County Prison that once stood In this 
place, and in use here for many years, has 
lost half Its depth within a score of years, and 
is likely to disappear entirely at no distant 
day. 

It Is not known that any description of the 
first Church edifice Is In existence. Possibly 
it was built of logs, hewn and squared ; but 
most probably It was a frame stru6lure with 
windows of leaden sash and diamond glass, or 
merely wooden shutters without any glass in 
the windows. In conne6lIon with the second 
edifice, there is mention in the Town Records 
of " cedar windows," which Intimates that the 
sash of the first Meeting House was made of 
lead. If It contained any sash and glass at all. 
The first house must have been a substantial 
building. It was the place for all public meet- 
ings of every kind which Puritan Christians 
desired to hold in order to promote the gen- 
eral welfare, safety, comfort and prosperity of 



THE OLD GRAVE- YARD. 12$ 

the Town. All the interests of the people for 
time and for eternity, for earth and heaven, 
were faithfully considered in it ; for it was 
both their temple of worship and their tower 
of defence. Their relations and duties to 
their Maker, Redeemer, and Comforter, as 
well as to their fellow men, were considered 
and determined in this place of divine worship 
and of public deliberation. It stood on the 
ground that was consecrated by no words of 
priestly benedi6lion, but by the tender burial 
of the dead and the hopes of the Christian resur- 
redlion, in the confident expe6lation that what 
was sown in weakness would be raised in power ; 
that the mortal would in due season be immor- 
tal ; and in every year, from that first year of the 
fathers, when the first grave was opened to re- 
ceive the first seed for the illimitable harvest, the 
precious sowing has continued until the pres- 
ent year of grace. Here, around the spot 
where the subduers of the wilderness lifted up 
their prayers and praises together unto God, 
now rest the old and the young, the gentle 
and the strong, waiting for that day when all 
that are in the graves shall hear the voice of 
the Son of God, as He has most impressively 
said, ''and shall come forth; they that have 



126 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

done good, unto the resurreftion of life ; and 
they that have done evil, unto the resurre6lion 
of damnation." 

The congregations that worshipped in that 
Meeting House have passed beyond our sight 
and observation ; but our indebtedness to 
them for their example of courage, patience, 
endurance, self-denial, faithfulness, and Christ- 
ian devotion has not ceased. They commend 
to us the religion for the sake of which they 
became pilgrims and exiles from the land of 
their birth and the graves of their fathers 
while they sought here an abode where they 
could enjoy the gospel in purity and peace ; 
and while they sought, beyond their chosen 
place on earth, a better country where they 
could enjoy perfe6lion and blessedness for 
ever more. They rest from their labors, and 
their works do follow them. Their posterity 
may well emulate their virtues in faith and de- 
votion to the honor of God and to the welfare 
of mankind ; and in due season join them in 
that better country to which they travelled — 
the land of immortal beauty and eternal fruit- 
fulness. 



PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. JOHN YOUNGS— Continued. 

1640 — 1672. 



CHAPTER III. 

Among- the calamities and distresses which 
fell to the lot of the upright man of Ur, he ex- 
perienced the miseries of changes and war. 
These deprived him of his sons and despoiled 
him of his wealth. They turned into foes the 
very members of his own household. 

The changes and war which spring from a 
restless, unjust and unstable government, are 
amonof the worst evils which the church has 
to meet and suffer in this world, while she is 
compelled to make her way, and, through the 
divine strength, to push forward her benign 
work, in her militant state. The First Church 
of Southold experienced the trials and hard- 
ships of changes and war while she was laying 
the foundations of the subsequent history of 
this Church and Town. 



130 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

We shall better appreciate the advantages 
conferred upon us by the zeal, devotion, piety 
and hardships of our fathers, and by the favor 
of our God in prote6ling them, and permitting 
us to possess the inheritance which they pre- 
pared for us, if we properly understand those 
changes and wars which caused them so much 
uneasiness, discomfort, trouble and suffering 
in the early years of our history. We shall 
see reasons for gratefulness in their conduft, 
and find motives, in their supreme regard 
for religion, to increase our love for God's 
word, and our obedience to his law, and our 
devotion in his worship. 

The planters of Southold were permitted to 
retain their union with the New Haven Juris- 
didlion for twenty-two years. Then Gov. 
Winthrop obtained for Conne61:icut the royal 
charter which Charles II. granted on the 30th 
of April, 1662. This charter extended the 
government of Conne6licut over the territory 
of the New Haven Jurisdi6lion, including 
Southold. It oruaranteed to the colonists the 
rights of English citizens ; authorized the 
General Assembly ele6led by the people to 
make laws, to organize courts, to appoint all 
necessary officers for the public good, regu- 



SOUTHOLD UNDER CONNECTICUT. I3I 

late military affairs, provide for the public de- 
fence, and control other public interests. Its 
chara6ler was so general, and it conferred 
such ample powers, that no change was nec- 
essary when Conne61:icut became, in 1776, in- 
dependent of Great Britain and subje6l to the 
United States ; and so the same charter con- 
tinued without amendment as the constitution 
of the State until 18 18. 

The people of Southold judged that their 
religious and civil liberty would be safe under 
its protection. They accordingly recognized 
the authority of the government of Conne6li- 
cut, which claimed Long Island as one of the 
'' adjacent islands " mentioned in the charter. 
Under this claim, on the 12th of May, 1664, 
Conne6ficut appointed a committee, includ- 
ing the Governor and Captain John Youngs 
of Southold, to settle the English plantations 
on the Island, according to the instru6lion 
given them ; and ordered them '* to do their 
endeavors so to settle matters, that the people 
may bq both civilly, peaceably and religiously 
governed in the English plantations, so as 
they may win the heathen to the knowledge 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by their 
sober and religious conversation," 



132 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

This Committee were a6llve on the Island 
in June 1664, and did something to accompHsh 
their purposes. 

But in August of this year, Col. Richard 
Nicholls came with a naval force and took 
possession of New York, including Long Is- 
land, according to a patent which Charles II. 
had given, on the 12th of March, 1664, to his 
brother James, Duke of York and Albany, in 
which Long Island is particularly named. 
Under this grant, the Duke of York made 
Richard Nicholls Governor of his province ; 
and Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and 
Samuel Maverick were appointed commission- 
ers with him to take possession of the coun- 
try, determine boundaries, and regulate other 
affairs throughout the territory extending from 
the Conne6licut river to the Delaware. These 
Commissioners sent a proclamation to the in- 
habitants of Long Island, and promised that 
all who would submit to the British King 
should be protected in his laws and justice, 
and peaceably enjoy whatsoever God's bless- 
ing and their honest industry had furnished 
them with, and all other privileges of English 
subjefts. At the close of August, the Dutch 
authorities at New York surrendered to the 



THE DUKE OF YORK*S PATENT. 1 33 

English, and as soon as Gov. Winthrop, of 
Conne6licut, saw the patent given to the Duke 
of York, he informed the people of Long Isl- 
and that Conne61:icut had no longer any 
claim to the Island. The Commissioners heard 
Mr. Howell of Southampton and Capt. Youngs 
of Southold give the reasons why Long Island 
should be under the government of Conne6l- 
icut. But on the 30th of November, they de- 
cided that Long Island must belong to the 
Duke of York. See Gov. Nicholls's letter to 
Mr. Howell and Capt. Youngs. Town Rec- 
ords, Book B, pp. 38, 39, 53. 

On the 8th of February, 1665, the Govern- 
or sent forth a proclamation ordering each of 
the Towns on Long Island to ele6l two dep- 
uties to attend a general meeting at Hemp- 
stead, on the last day of that month, in order 
to make a more formal submission to the 
Duke, and to accept a new body of laws. 
William Wells, Esq., and Capt. John Youngs 
were chosen by the people of Southold to rep- 
resent them, and to carry with them to the 
Governor the following petition, namely: 

These are to certifie our honored Govern- 
or Coll. Richard Nicholls Esqr that according 
to his command and in persuance of his sage 

12 



134 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

and sound advice the freemen of Southold in 
a plenary meeting made eIe6lIon of mstr Wil- 
liam Wells and Capt. John Youngs and them 
Invested with full power to conclude any cause 
or matter relating to all or any of the several 
townes comprised In the Grand Charter and 
to that end to walte uppon your honor at the 
time and place assigned by your letter of the 
eight of this present february 1664. 

1. That there may be a law Inafted that we 
may Injoy our lands in free sockadg we and 
our heirs for ever. 

2. That the freemen may have their choyse 
every yeare of all their sivell officers. 

3. That every trained souldier may have 
his free choys of theire mlllltary officers year- 
ly if they see ocatlone and that we may not 
pay to any forttlficatlon but what may be with- 
in our selves : because we are Remott from all 
other townes : and that the fotte soldieres 
may not be injoyned to trayn without the 
p'clncks of the towne. 

4. That we may have three courts In the 
towne of Southold in a year & that there may 
be chosen by the freemen on or two assistants 
to sitte in Court with those that shall be mag- 
istrates and that they may have power to try 
all causes and actlones except Cappltall mat- 
ters and that they may tottally end all matters 
to the value of five pounds without any apelles. 

5. That because the Gennerall Courts and 



THE DUKES LAWS. 135 

meettlngs are verry Remott from us that 
therefore we may have some mittygatione in 
our charge. 

6. That not any magistrate may have any 
yearly maintainance. 

7. That there be not any Ratte Levy, or 
Charge or mony Raised but what shallbe with 
the consent of the major part of the Dep- 
utyes in a Gennerall Court or metting. 

On the first of March, all the deputies of 
the several Towns signed an address to the 
Duke, and promised, for all the people, sub- 
mission to his laws, and support of his rights 
and title, according to his patent from the 
King. 

The same meeting made a body of laws 
for the government of the province, or rath- 
er accepted a code already prepared for them. 
These are known as "the Duke's Laws." At 
the same meeting, a shire, or county, was 
formed ; and after the model of Yorkshire in 
England, it was divided into Ridings, East, 
North, and West. The towns in the present 
county of Suffolk formed the East Riding of 
Yorkshire on Long Island. 

The people of Southold were greatly dis- 
satisfied with the adlion of their representa- 
tives, and still more so with the Duke's gov- 



136 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ernment. But Messrs. Wells and Youngs 
undoubtedly did their best for the people 
here, and as well as any other persons in 
Southold could have done. But the early 
settlers left no means unused that gave any 
promise of restoring them to Conne6licut, 
and of releasing them from the authority and 
laws of the Duke. It could not be other- 
wise, in view of the contrast between the 
charafter, life and purposes of the Town, on 
the one hand, and the disposition, aims, and 
history of this specimen of the Stuarts, on 
the other. He was the second surviving son 
of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, daughter 
of Henry IV. of France. He was born in 
1633, called Duke of York forthwith, and 
patented as such in 1643. He was eight 
years old when the civil war commenced. 
He saw the first great battle of that war at 
Edgehlll, 06i. 23, 1642, where the forces of 
the king got the advantage of their foes. He 
was at the siege of Bristol the next year ; 
was taken prisoner at Oxford in 1646; es- 
caped In 1648, and went to Holland and Flan- 
ders ; in 1649, to Paris and Jersey, and thence 
returned to the Netherlands. In 1651 he en- 
tered the French army ; but he had to leave 



THE duke's life. 137 

France four years afterwards, and then he en- 
tered the Spanish army. In 1660, his elder 
brother was recalled from his exile and made 
King of England as Charles II. The Duke 
shared in the good fortune of his family, and 
married Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of 
Clarendon. She died in 1671, and two years 
afterwards, when he was forty years old, he 
married an Italian lady aged fifteen years. 
He had become a Papist while on the conti- 
nent; but he did not own it until the death of 
his first wife. He became the head of his 
brother's administration in Scotland and was 
exceedingly cruel to the Presbyterians, who 
were then, as now, the most and the best of 
the people of that country. His brother died 
and he became the King in 1685. His par- 
liament was the most slavish and his pun- 
ishments the most bloody ever known in 
English history; but he dismissed the parlia- 
ment, and undertook to overthrow the consti- 
tution, and hand over the government to the 
papacy. He went from bad to worse for three 
years. On the loth of June, 1688, his Italian 
and papal wife bore a son to him. The pros- 
pe6l of this son's succeeding him was enough. 
Twenty days later, his daughter Mary and her 



138 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

husband William, Prince of Orange, were in- 
vited by the real representatives of the Eng- 
lish people, to take the throne. William came 
with 15,000 men, and James fled to France. 
The next year, he passed over to Ireland and 
headed a rebellion which received its death 
blow at the battle of the Boyne, July, i, 1690. 
He then returned to France, said prayers to 
the saints, and plotted the assassination of 
William III. He died of apoplexy in 1701. 
This is the man to whose authority and laws 
the people of Southold had to submit in 
1665. The Town was allowed to ele6l its 
constable and assessors, and these officers 
could make orders concerning some local in- 
terests of the people, and they were required 
to appoint every year two of the assessors 
to make the rate for building and repairing 
the church, maintaining the minister, and sup- 
porting the poor. But the governor of the 
Duke's appointment was in effecSl law-maker, 
judge, and executive officer. The delegates 
of Southold, Southampton and Easthampton 
met in Southold in 1672 in order to unite for 
the maintenance of their rights. 

One instance of the Governor's arbitrary 
rule was this: he gave orders, on the 19th 



THE r)UKE*S GOVERNORS. 139 

day of July, 1667, to the officers of Southold, 
and of other eastern Towns on Long Island, 
that one-third of the militia, which were in 
foot companies, should fit themselves with 
horses, saddles and such arms (either pistols, 
carbines or muskets) as they had^ and be 
ready, at an hour's warning-, to obey his orders 
whenever he should command them to a ren- 
dezvous. All civil and military officers were 
required, upon their allegiance, to promote 
this service strenuously and diligently. 

The first Governor, however arbitrary, was 
a man of intelligence and wisdom ; but he re- 
turned to England in 1668, and four years af- 
terward was killed in a naval engagement in 
a war against Holland. He was succeeded 
by Col. Francis Lovelace, who soon proved to 
be a far less worthy governor than Col. Rich- 
ard Nicholls. For Lovelace was the man who 
ordered one of his deputies to impose such 
taxes upon the people as might give them 
liberty for no thought but how to discharge 
them. In 1670, he ordered Southold and 
other towns on Long Island to pay taxes to 
build or rebuild a fort at New York, and for 
other purposes. The towns of Southold, 
Southampton and Easthampton appointed 



1 40 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

delegates who met here in Southold to con- 
sider the matter ; and after full consultation, 
these Puritan towns declined to pay the tax- 
es, unless they could have the rights and priv- 
ileges of the people of New England. They 
united with other towns of the Island in pro- 
testing against the despotism of the Governor. 
The result was, that the Governor and his 
council ordered the protests to be publicly 
burned. 

These transa6lions most deeply moved the 
people of Southold, who were nearly all of 
them members of the church, and with whom 
their purity and liberty in religion were their 
chief concern. The Duke's government was un- 
congenial and even irksome from the first day 
of its imposition. It was steadily becoming 
more uncomfortable and even hateful. 

In these circumstances a new source of ag- 
itation was opened. It was humiliation to 
them as Englishmen ; but relief to them as Pur- 
itan Christians and devoted lovers of liberty. 

On the 28th of July, 1673, a Dutch fleet of 
armed vessels came inside of Sandy Hook, 
and two days thereafter sailed up to New 
York and took possession of the place without 
the firing of a gun to resist them. 



WHALE FISHING. I4I 

They left Capt. Anthony Colve as Governor, 
and took away with them, on their return, Col. 
Francis Lovelace, whom they carried back to 
Europe. 

Capt. Manning, the English officer who had 
command of the fort at the time, was after- 
wards tried for treachery and cowardice, pro- 
nounced guilty, and condemned to have his 
sword broken over his head, casting him out 
of the army in disgrace. Gov. Lovelace was 
deprived of his estate, which was given to the 
Duke of York. 

Capt. Colve, the new Dutch Governor of 
the province, was a man of energy, and began 
forthwith to restore the Dutch authority and 
institutions. As soon as he had brought the 
city into a good condition of order and indus- 
try, he issued a proclamation, August 14, 1673, 
to the several towns on Long Island, requir- 
ing each of them to send two deputies to New 
York with full power to submit to the Dutch 
authority. The Towns on the West End sub- 
mitted. 

But Southold, Southampton and Easthamp- 
ton eagerly sent their deputies to Conne6licut 
to ask for its government and prote6lion. 
Their request was referred by the General 



142 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLi). 

Court to a committee, authorized to grant it, 
with the concurrence of the Governments of 
Massachusetts and Plymouth. The committee 
took these three towns under the Conne61icut 
Jurisdi6lion, made them a county, organized a 
county court, appointed judges, and commis- 
sioned other civil and military officers. 

These towns adopted other means also to 
accomplish their purpose, as it appears from 
the following Order : 

'' At a Court at Whitehall, the 3d of July, 
1672. 

*' Present — the King's Most Excellent Maj- 
esty in Council. 

" Upon reading this day at the Board the 
humble petition of his Majesty's subje6ls in 
three villao^es at the East End of Lono- Island 
in America, called Easthampton, Southamp- 
ton, and Southold, setting forth that they 
have spent much time and pains and the 
greater part of their estates in settling the 
trade of whale fishing in the adjacent seas, 
having endeavored it above these twenty 
years, but could not bring it to any perfecrtion 
till within these two or three years last past. 
And it being now a hopeful trade at New 
York in America, the Governor and the Dutch 
there do require the petitioners to come under 
their patent, and lay very heavy taxes upon 



RELATIONS WITH THE DUTCH. 1 43 

them beyond any of his Majesty's subje61:s in 
New England, and will not permit the peti- 
tioners to have any deputies in Court, but being 
chief, do impose what laws they please upon 
them ; and, insulting very much over the pe- 
titioners, threaten to cut down their timber, 
which is but little they have to [make] casks 
for oil, although the petitioners purchased 
their lands of the Lord Sterling's deputy, 
above thirty years since, and have been till 
now under the government and patent of Mr. 
Winthrop, belonging to Conne6licut patent, 
which lieth far more convenient for the peti- 
tioners' assistance in the aforesaid trade. And 
therefore most humbly praying that they may 
be continued under the government and patent 
of Mr. Winthrop, or else that they may be a 
free corporation as his Majesty's subje6ls for 
the further encouraging them in their said 
trade, otherwise they must be forced to re- 
move, to their great undoing, and damage of 
sundry merchants, to whom they stand in- 
debted for their trade." 

The King ordered the Council on Foreign 
Plantations to consider this petition, and re- 
port their opinion thereon, with all convenient 
speed, and also to give notice to the Commis- 
sioners of the Duke of York, that they may at- 
tend when the same shall be under considera- 



144 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

tlon. See Brodhead's Documents, Vol. 3, pp. 
197, 198. 

The representations of this petition are 
touched at one point by a statemeut which 
Gov. Nicholls made a few years previously, 
when he wrote to the Duke of York in these 
words : 

'* The people of Long Island are very poor, 
and labor only to get bread and clothing, with- 
out hopes of ever seeing a penny of monies." 
See Brodhead's Documents, Vol. 3, p. 106. 

On the day that Gov. Colve appointed for 

the Puritan Towns to submit to the Dutch 

authority, the Delegates from these English 

Towns presented to the Dutch Council the 

following writing : 

*' Jamaica, August the 14th, 1673. 
'' Whereas we the inhabitants of the East 
Riding of Long Island (namely, Southampton, 
Easthampton, Southold, Setauket and Hunt- 
ington,) were sometimes rightly and peaceful- 
ly joined with Hartford Jurisdi6lion to good 
satisfadlion on both sides ; but about the year 
1664 Gen. Richard Nicholls coming in the 
name of his Majesty's Royal Highness the 
Duke of York and by power subje61ed us to 
the government under which we have remain- 
ed until this present time, and now by turn of 
God's providence, ships of force belonging to 



PRIVILEGES DESIRED. 1 45 

the States of Holland have taken New York 
the 30th of the last month, and we having no 
Intelligence to this day from our Governor, 
Francis Lovelace, Esquire, of what hath hap- 
pened or what we are to do, but the General 
of the said Dutch force hath sent to us his 
declaration or summons with a serious com- 
mlnation therein contained, and since we un- 
derstand by the post bringing the said declar- 
ation that our Governor Is peaceably and re- 
specSlfully entertained into the said fort and 
city ; we the inhabitants of the said East Rid- 
ing, or our deputies for us, at a meeting this 
day do make these our requests as follows : 

Imprimis, That If we come under the Dutch 
government, we desire that we may retain our 
ecclesiastical privileges, namely, to worship God 
according to our belief without any imposition. 

Secondly. That we may enjoy the small 
matters of goods we possess, with our lands 
according to our purchase of the natives as it 
Is now bounded out, without further charge 
of confirmation. 

Thirdly. That the oath of allegiance to be 
Imposed may bind us only while we are un- 
der Government ; but that as we shall be 
bound not to a6l against them, so also not to 
take up arms for them against our own nation. 

Fourthly. That we may always have liber- 
ty to choose our own officers both civil and 
military. 

Fifthly. That these five towns may be a cor- 

13 



146 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

poratlon of themselves to end all matters of dlf- 
erence between man and man, excepting only 
cases concerning life, limb and banishment. 

Sixthly. That no law may be made or tax 
imposed upon the people at any time but such 
as shall be consented to by the deputies of 
the respe6live towns. 

Seventhly. That we may have free trade 
with the nation now in power and all others 
without paying custom. 

Eighthly. In every respe6l to have equal 
privileges with the Dutch nation. 

Ninthly. That there may be free liberty 
granted the five towns abovesaid for the pro- 
curing from any of the United Colonies (with- 
out molestation on either side) warps, irons 
or any other necessaries for the comfortable 
carrying on the whale design. 

Tenthly. That all bargains, covenants and 
contrails of what nature soever stand in full 
force, as they would have been had there been 
no change of government. 

Easthampton, Thomas James. 
Southampton, John Jessup, 

Joseph Raynor. 
Southold, Thomas Hutchinson, 

Isaac Arnold. 
Brookhaven, Richard Woodhull, 

Andrew Miller. 
Huntington, Isaac Piatt, 

Thomas Skidmore. 
Deputies," 



PRIVILEGES GRANTED. 147 

The Records of the Dutch Council proceed: 

**The Delegates from Easthampton, South- 
ampton, Southold, Setauket and Huntington 
requested an audience, and entering, delivered 
in their credentials with a writing in form of a 
petition. They further declared to submit 
themselves to the obedience of their High 
Mightinesses the Lords States-General of the 
United Netherlands and his Serene Highness 
the Prince of Orange, etc* Whereupon, the 
preceding petition having been read and taken 
into consideration, it is ordered as follows : 

On the first point. They are allowed free- 
dom of conscience in the worship of God and 
church discipline. 

Second. They shall hold and possess all 
their goods and lawfully procured lands, on 
condition that said lands be duly recorded. 

Third point regarding the oath of allegiance 
with liberty not to take up arms against their 
own nation is allowed and accorded to the pe- 
titioners. 

Fourth article is in like manner granted to 
the petitioners : to nominate a double number 
for their magistrates, from which the ele6lion 
shall then be made here by the Governor. 

Fifth. It is allowed the petitioners that 
the magistrates in each town shall pronounce 
final judgment to the value of five pounds 
sterling, and the Schout with the General 
Court of said five towns, to the sum of twenty 



148 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

pounds, but over these an appeal to the Gov- 
ernor is reserved. 

Sixth. In case any of the Dutch towns 
shall send deputies, the same shall, in like 
manner, be allowed the petitioners. 

On the seventh and eighth articles it is or- 
dered, that the petitioners shall be considered 
and treated as all the other subje61:s of the 
Dutch nation, and be allowed to enjoy the 
same privileges with them. 

Ninth article cannot, in this conjun6lure of 
time, be allowed. 

Tenth article. 'Tis allowed that all the 
foregoing particular contra6ls and bargains 
shall stand in full force." 

The first noticeable feature of this business 
is, that the first of the deputies was a minister, 
the pastor of Easthampton, and that the first 
article of the ten included in the provisions 
has reference to the chief concern of these 
Puritan Christians, namely, religion. Their 
goods and lands were held secondary to this 
chief interest. It shows the charafter and ob- 
jedls of the men who were a6live here two 
hundred years ago ; and it manifests their re- 
ligious devotion in a most impressive way. 
It leaves no doubt as to the godly charafter 
of the men who have laid us under obligations 
for the inheritance which we enjoy. It plainly 



DUTCH COMMISSION; 149 

shows US also how broad, and hberal, and 
comprehensive was the nature of their rehg- 
ion. It was no mere matter of feehng — no 
narrow experience of sentiment or emotion. 
But it embraced all their important interests 
for this life as well as for that which is to come. 

Ten days after these transa6lions, the Gov- 
ernment of Conne61:icut gave the Dutch Coun- 
cil plain notice, that the United Colonies of 
New England would, through the assistance 
of Almighty God, maintain the liberty of the 
English on Long Island eastward of Oyster 
Bay, and keep them as a part of New Eng- 
land. The Dutch instantly replied to this 
notice with spirit and defiance, declaring that 
Southold and the other eastward towns be- 
longed to the Dutch government, and would 
be retained by arms, should there be anyneed 
of force to retain them. 

On the 8th of September, the Council ele6l- 
ed officers for the County and for the several 
towns from the nominations submitted. For 
Schout, that is. Sheriff of the County, Isaac 
Arnold of Southold was chosen, and for Mag- 
istrates of this town, Thomas Moore and Thom- 
as Hutchinson. At the same time the oath 
of fidelity to the Dutch government to be 



150 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

taken by all the inhabitants of these eastern 
towns was modified somewhat, with a view to 
make it less unacceptable to them. 

The Dutch Council of War in New York 
were certainly very considerate and generous 
in their dealings with these towns. But it is 
not wonderful that their efforts to conciliate 
and keep them were in vain. They could not 
overcome the force of language and grateful 
associations. 

But on the ist of Odlober, Gov. Colve com- 
missioned Capt. William Knyffe and Lieut. 
Anthony Malypart, with the Clerk, Abraham 
Varlett, to call a Town meeting in each of the 
eastern towns, to administer unto the inhab- 
itants thereof the oath of fidelity, and to make 
a true return thereof. 

The business of Capt. Knyffe and his asso- 
ciates did not prosper. He visited all the 
towns, called meetings, and proposed to them 
the oath. But the several Towns declined to 
take the oath. Southold had already met, 
and on the 29th of September said : 

" The reasons following show why we the 
major part of the Town of Southold aforesaid 
do forbear to a6l further than we have a61:ed 
upon the summons sent us by Mr. Isaac Ar- 



DUTCH JURISDICTION DECLINED. I5I 

nold." No less than seven different reasons 
are enumerated and stated^ the first being 
that they had understood that the Schout and 
Magistrates only were to take the oath^ and 
the second that they would be debarred the 
freedom of conscience granted in the first ar- 
ticle of the Order made on the 24th of August. 
They close their statement with these words : 

*'We have been left without government 
about a month, which hath been prejudicial 
to some and caused fear in others, we lying 
open to the incursion of those who threaten 
us daily with the spoiling of our goods if we 
take any oath of fidelity to you ; and now you 
coming amongst us, without power to settle 
either civil or military government, we not- 
withstanding are willing to submit ourselves 
to your government, (during the prevalence 
of your power over us) provided you perform 
those articles you first promised us, and also 
establish a firm and peaceable government 
among us, prote6ling us from the invasion of 
those which daily threaten us." 

Southold was followed by Southampton, 
061. I ; by Easthampton, 061. 2 ; by Setauk- 
et, 061. 4 ; and by Huntington, 061. 6 — all 
declining the Dutch Jurisdi61:ion. 

On the 20th of 06lober, Gov. Colve sub- 
mitted to the Council the report of Capt. 



t52 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD; 

Knyffe and Lieut. Malypart, and the answers 
of the Towns, and proposed whether it would 
not be necessary to send a considerable force 
thither to punish them as rebels. He request- 
ed the advice of the Council hereupon. After 
divers debates, the majority judged that in 
this conjun6ture of war it was not advisable 
to attack them by force of arms, and thereby 
afford them and the neighboring colonies oc- 
casion to take up arms against the Dutch. 
They judged it better to send a second dele- 
gation. 

Captain Knyffe and Ensign Vos were suc- 
cessful in this second visit with Setauket and 
Huntington, and on the 28th of 061:ober gave 
the list of names in those two towns to the 
Governor, having sworn Joseph and Isaac 
Piatt for magistrates of Huntington and Rich- 
ard Woodhull for Setauket. 

On the 30th, the Governor sent hither to 
the most eastward towns a most worthy delega- 
tion, with instru61ions to dispense with the 
oath, if needful, except on the part of the mag- 
istrates, Isaac Arnold, the Sheriff, having al- 
ready taken it ; to give them a double number 
of magistrates, should they desire it ; to assure 
them that the instru6lions sent to the Schout 



DELEGATION FROM THE GOVERNOR. 1 53 

and magistrates should in no wise confli6l with 
the order formerly granted on their petition ; 
that they should have the right to trade with 
the neighboring Colonies on as good terms as 
anybody; that they shall have the nomination 
of their own magistrates, and whatever they 
ask in fairness ; and that refusing obedience 
will be their ruin. The Commissioners sent 
with these instru6lions were the Hon. Corne- 
lius Steenwyck, who was the Governor's chief 
Councilor, Capt. Charles Epesteyn, and Lieut. 
Charles Quirynsen. Councilor Steenwyck had 
been Mayor of the city for several years under 
the English Government and became Mayor 
again after the restoration of the English rule. 
For a time, he had been appointed Governor 
of the Province in the absence of Gov. Love- 
lace. He was a merchant of the highest 
chara6];er for honesty and worth, one of the 
richest and most popular and influential men 
in the colony. There was living no better 
man for the Governor to appoint as the chief 
of the commission ; for both Dutch and Eng- 
lish had unbounded confidence in him. 

But he did not prosper in his enterprise. 
He and his fellow commissioners sailed 061. 
31, in the naval sloop or snow the Zee-hond 



154 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

(Seadog) about noon on Tuesday ; but were 
thrown ashore by the current near Corlear's 
hook. But they warped off and sailed to Hell- 
gate, where they met the flood and had to re- 
turn and anchor near Barent's Island. 

Wednesday. The wind blew hard from the 
east. They could not sail ; rowed to Barent's 
Island ; returning, touched a rock near the 
Pot ; almost upset the boat, and were in im- 
minent danger. 

Thursday, they broke their rope and lost 
their anchor. 

Friday, they passed the White Stone and 
reached Minnewit's Island. 

Saturday, they sailed near Falcon's Island 
and met a complete hurricane. 

Sunday, they reached the riff of the Lit. 
tlegatt, but lost their boat. 

Monday, they pursued a sail from Pluymgat 
to near Silvester Island. It proved to be a 
vessel conveying Capt. Winthrop and Mr. 
Willis, Commissioners of Conne6licut. There 
was a showing of commissions on each side. 
Mr. Silvester sent his son with a boat, and 
the Commissioners went on shore and passed 
the night with him, [on Shelter Island]. 

Tuesday, Nov. 7. The Conne6licut Com- 



DUTCH OR ENGLISH. 1 55 

missioners gave a copy of their commission to 
the Dutch Commissioners, and requested 
them to proceed no further with their busi- 
ness ; but answer was made that the Dutch 
commission must be executed. Whereupon 
the Conne6licut Commissioners hoisted the 
King's jack, and rowed up toward Southold 
in the boat belonging to Mr. Silvester's ship, 
with the King's jack in the stern. The Dutch 
commissioners immediately followed in a boat 
they had borrowed from Capt. Silvester, with 
the Prince's flag in the stern. At 2 p. m., 
coming near Southold, they heard the drum 
beat and the trumpet sounded, and saw a sa- 
lute with muskets whenever the Conne6ticut 
gentleman passed by. Meanwhile, the water 
being low, and the tide on the turn, the boat be- 
ing slowly dragged along by the sailors, the 
Commissioners were obliged to land. Coming 
nearer, they saw a troop of cavalry riding 
backward and forward, four of whom advanc- 
ed to the Commissioners, dismounted, and 
courteously placed the Commissioners on their 
own horses ; whereupon the Commissioners 
ascended the heights, where they met Capt. 
Winthrop and Esquire Willis with a troop of 
twenty-six or twenty-eight men on horseback, 



156 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

So they rode on towards the village. [''The 
heights " are the bluff at the lower end of Bay 
Avenue. The road formerly ran in a some- 
what curved line, and farther east than Bay 
Avenue, from the Main Street to the bluff, 
and led down to the beach eastward of the 
bluff, west of the present Bay Farm of Elder 
Stuart T. Terry]. When they reached the 
village, they found about sixty footmen in 
arms. They went to the house of one Mr. 
Moore, and dismounting, they were invited to 
enter. This house of Mr. Moore is the pres- 
ent Case house. After a little while, Mr. 
Steenwyck requested that the inhabitants 
might be called together to hear why they had 
come and to hear also the commission of the 
Governor. Then the Conne6licut Commis- 
sioners answered, that the inhabitants of 
Southold were subje6ls of his Majesty of Eng- 
land, and had nothing to do with any orders 
or commission of the Dutch ; and then said 
to the inhabitants : Whoever among you will 
not remain faithful to his Majesty of England, 
your lawful Lord and King, let him now speak. 
Not one of the inhabitants made answer. Mr. 
Steenwyck replied thereupon, that they were 
3ubje6ls of their High Mightinesses the States- 



DEPARTURE OF THE DUTCH. 1 57 

Ganeral and his Highness the Prince of Or- 
ange, as appeared by their colors and consta- 
ble's staff, by the nomination of their magis- 
trates, presented by them to the Governor, 
and by the eleftion subsequent thereon. He 
further requested, that the eledled persons 
might be called. Thomas Moore appeared ; 
but Thomas Hutchinson absented himself, 
and could not be found. Said Moore would 
not accept the ele6lion of Gov. Colve ; but 
said he had nothing to do with it. Then Isaac 
Arnold, who had already been sworn in as 
Sheriff [he was in New York when the Dutch 
took the place] declared, that he had already 
resigned his office of Sheriff, because it was 
not in his power to execute that office, having 
been already threatened by the inhabitants 
that they would plunder his house. Mr. 
Steenwyck again asked the people, most of 
whom were present, if they would remain 
faithful to their High Mightinesses and take 
the oath ? Not one answered ; signifying 
plainly enough by their silence that they 
would not. After some further efforts, the 
Dutch Commissioners left the place. On 
leaving, some inhabitants of Southampton 
were present, and John Cooper, (Ruling EI- 
14 



158 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

der of the Southampton Church), told Mr. 
Steenwyck to take care and not appear with 
that thing at Southampton. He repeated 
this more than once; for the commissioners 
had intended to go thither the next morning. 
Whereupon Mr. Steenwyck asked, what he 
meant by that word ''thing," to which the 
said John Cooper repHed, '' the Prince's 
Flag." Then Mr. Steenwyck inquired, if he 
said so of himself, or on the authority of the 
inhabitants of Southampton. He answered: 
*' Rest satisfied that I warn you, and take care 
that you come not with that Flag within range 
of shot of our village." 

The Conne6licut commissioners asked the 
Dutch what village they would visit next, and 
intimated that they would be present at every 
place which the Dutch commissioners should 
visit. 

The latter thereupon entered their boat and 
rowed back toward Shelter Island, and resolv- 
ed not to visit the other two villages, as they 
clearly perceived that they would be unable 
to effe61; any thing, and rather do more harm 
than good. 

They reached Shelter Island at ten o'clock 
in the evening, and there spent the night. 



A VIGOROUS LETTER. 159 

The next day, Wednesday, Nov. 8th, they 
sailed with the ebb at noon, and passed 
through Pkimgut, when the sun was an hour 
high, with a spanking breeze ; saw two sails ; 
spoke one, belonging to Achter Kol^ that is, 
Elizabeth, New Jersey. 

The next evening at 8 o'clock the commis- 
sioners reached the Fort in New York and 
reported to the Governor, who sent, on the 
1 8th, a bold and vigorous letter in answer to 
a note received on the 5th from the Governor 
of Connefticut. In this letter he said : 

" It is sufficiently notorious and can also 
appear by their requests, that the inhabitants 
of the East End of Long Island have submit- 
ted and declared themselves subje6ls of their 
High Mightinesses, delivering up their colors, 
constables' staves, making nominations for 
Schout, Magistrates and Secretaries ; where- 
upon their eledlion also duly followed. Fur- 
thermore we have been requested by their 
deputies to excuse the eledled Magistrates 
from coming hither to take the oath, but as it 
was necessary to send commissioners thither 
in order to bring the people under oath, that 
they may be qualified to administer the same 
to the magistrates in like manner, which we 
were pleased to grant them, and which would 
undoubtedly have been complied with by 



l6o HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

them, had not some evil disposed persons 
gone from you and dissuaded them. I am 
here to maintain the right of their High Might- 
inesses and His Serene Highness, the Prince 
of Orange, my Lords and Masters ; therefore 
give Httle heed to your strange and threaten- 
ing words, knowing to put, with God's bless- 
ing and the force entrusted unto me, such 
means into operation as will reduce rebels to 
due obedience, and to make those who up- 
hold them in their unrighteous proceedings 
to alter their evil designs." 

But nothing more was done through the 
winter to bring the people of Southold under 
the power of the Dutch ; and with the return 
of Spring it became known that a treaty of 
peace between England and the Netherlands 
had been signed at Westminster on the 9th 
of February, restoring New York to the form- 
er in exchange for Surinam in South America, 
though it was not until the loth of November 
that the Dutch formally yielded up the pos- 
sessions on the Hudson and the neighboring 
waters which they had held first and last for 
nearly sixty years. 

Thus Southold was reluftantly drawn back 
into subje6lion to the government of the 
Duke of York. It remained a part of his 



FRUltS OF PEACE. . l6l 

province until he became the King of Eng- 
land by the death of his brother, Charles II., 
in 1685. Then the province itself became a 
royal one ; and it so continued until the War 
of Independence. 

Though suffering greatly from changes and 
war, the early settlers laid here the foundations 
of liberty and religion. The lands which they 
had purchased from the savages, they endeav- 
ored to bring under the fruitful influence of 
culture ; to improve the place by their own 
industry and piety ; and to enrich it with 
Christian homes. They desired to possess 
the freedom of commerce as well as the fruits 
of their own toil in every field of labor, and 
all the privileges which they had inherited as 
freemen of England. But in all their aims 
and plans, they gave religion the chief place. 
This was the sacred ark in the midst of the 
host, whether the tribes were on the march or 
in the camp. They made everything else 
subordinate and subservient to the worship of 
God according to his word. Their example 
is a constant incitement to their posterity to 
emulate their faith. They lived here as pil- 
grims ; for they desired a better country, even 
the heavenly. Their possessions on earth 
were few, and their aspirations for the riches 



1 62 . HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

and honors of this world restrained within 
narrow Hmlts. The Inventories of their goods 
disclose to us the property which they held 
and used, and the style in which they lived. 

They had lands, houses, barns, fences, 
horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and fowls of vari- 
ous kinds. They used a few rude utensils for 
the cultivation of the soil — carts, ploughs, har- 
rows, hoes, forks, scythes, sickles, axes, &c. 

A few of the inhabitants were mechanics 
and artisans, such as carpenters, blacksmiths, 
weavers, and shoemakers. But far the great- 
er part of them wrought dire6lly upon the 
land or the water. 

Within their dwellings they used tables, 
chairs, desks, drawers, chests, bedsteads, beds, 
bedding, shovels, tongs, andirons, trammels, 
pothooks, pots, pans, knives, wooden ware, 
pewter ware, especially plates and spoons, 
and sometimes a little earthen ware, and per- 
haps a few pieces of silver, as a tankard and 
a cup. Nearly all had guns, and some had 
swords and books. But stoves, tin ware, 
plated ware of every kind, china, porcelain, 
queens ware, and all kinds of fine work of 
the potter's art seem to have been unknown 
among them. So were table-cloths, and es- 
pecially table-forks, which were used in Italy 



MODE OF LIF]^. 1 63 

as early perhaps as the settlement of South- 
old, but not in England until many years 
thereafter. They had no carpets, and few 
had any pi6lures, clocks, watches, musical in- 
struments, or works of art for the adornment 
of their homes. Some had candlesticks, but 
few had lamps. Some had simple implements 
for the manufacture of flax and wool into 
cloth, and the families generally had scissors 
and needles sufficient for making the homely 
garments which they wore. 

They had little food, or even condiments, 
brought from beyond the Town — no coffee 
nor tea. They were able to gather a scanty 
supply of wild fruits ; but they had little or 
no other. They greatly depended upon the 
mortar and pestle to prepare their grain for 
cooking. Their resources, employments, im- 
plements, furniture, food, manners and habits 
were unlike our own to a degree which we 
cannot easily understand. 

They had nets and boats for fishing and other 
purposes ; but how unlike those now in use ! 

Land was cheap; but domestic animals 
were dear; and wild beasts and Indians' wolf- 
ish dogs preyed upon them destrucftively. 

In the experience of many privations and 
hardships, the early settlers were social, kind- 



164 rtlSTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ly and helpful to each other, bearing each 
other's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of 
Christ. There was much need of it ; for they 
were destitute of many advantages and con- 
veniences which we deem indispensable. 
They had the ministry of God's word for their 
spiritual comfort and improvement ; but for 
the relief of their physical m.aladies in cases 
of sickness and accident they could not ob- 
tain the benefit of the services of an intelli- 
gent and skillful physician. When death 
came, they buried their dead with all serious- 
ness ; but they did it without funeral solemni- 
ties in order to protest against wakes, masses, 
prayers for the dead, and the whole round of 
superstitious rites and ceremonies which are 
practiced in some places without the authori- 
ty of the word of God. 

The head of the household conduced the 
family worship day by day, and the minister 
condu61:ed the public worship and explained 
and applied the Scriptures on the Sabbath, 
and on le6lure, fast and thanks-giving days. 

The people were in a high degree obedient 
to God and just to each other. They lived at 
peace among themselves, and were in a good 
degree prosperous as well as contented and 
thankful. 



PART 11. 

PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. JOSHUA HOBART. 

1674-1717. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The second pastor of the First Church of 
Southold was the Rev. Joshua Hobart. He 
was the eldest son of the Rev. Peter Hobart, 
and a grandson of Edmund Hobart. 

His grandfather came from England to 
Massachusetts in 1633, and settled in Charles- 
town ; but removed two years later to Hing- 
ham, where he lived eleven years and died in 
1646. From 1639 to 1642 he represented 
the Town of Hingham in the General Court. 

He lived in England In a place where the 
people generally were very wicked ; but he 
and his wife were excellent Christians, and 
took care to train up their children in the 
knowledge and pra6lice of the true religion. 

Their son Peter was born in Hingham, 
Norfolk county, England, near the close of 



1 68 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

the year 1604. While he was very young, 
they sent him to a grammar school near where 
they lived, and in this school he advanced rap- 
idly in his studies. They sent him afterwards 
to the free school in Lynn ; and when he had 
gained the needful preparation, he went to 
the University of Cambridge. He pursued 
his studies in the University until he became 
a Bachelor of Arts. During his whole college 
course, he maintained a high chara6ler as a 
diligent, sober and pious person. 

After his graduation, he taught a grammar 
school, and lodged in the house of a clergy- 
man of the Established Church. This re61:or 
was not friendly to the Puritans, but he some- 
times employed young Hobart, the pious 
teacher, to preach for him. This continued 
for a time, and then the young man returned 
to the University and took his degree of Mas- 
ter of Arts. Thereafter, he preached in sev- 
eral places as he had opportunity ; and having 
married an excellent wife, discreet and frugal, 
like himself, he became at length a successful 
minister at Haverhill, on the western border 
of Suffolk county, and fifteen or twenty miles 
southeast of Cambridge. He remained in 
England two years after his parents, brothers 



-IIEV. PETER HOBART. ^6^ 

and sisters had found a ne^^^ home In Massa- 
chusetts. They were urgent for him to join 
them in the new world. Their persuasions, 
and the difficulties which he experienced on 
account of his Puritanism>, induced him to 
cross the ocean. He embarked in the sum- 
mer of 1635, '^ith his wife and four children. 
They had a long and tiresome passage, and 
were sick nearly all the voyage ; but at the 
end of it they reached Charlestown in safety, 
where his kindred were ready to meet them 
with a joyful welcome. Several churches 
soon invited him to become their minister ; 
but he preferred to make with his friends a 
new plantation. They did this, and called 
the place Hingham. Here he gathered a 
church and continued to be its industrious 
and faithful pastor for about forty years. 

Soon after he came to this country his wife 
died. This was a great bereavement and sor- 
row to him. But he afterwards married an- 
other, who proved to be, like the first, a great 
blessing to him. 

After he had been settled some time in 
Hingham, the church in Haverhill, whence he 
had come, earnestly invited him to return and 
become their pastor again. He felt the at- 

*5 



170 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

traftions of the old country ; but all things 
being considered, he thought it best to decline 
the call. 

In the spring of 1670 he was very ill and 
likely to die ; but he had a strong desire to 
live longer, especially to make some direft 
efforts in behalf of the youth of his congrega- 
tion, and to superintend the education of his 
own younger children. God granted his de- 
sire, and he lived until January 20, 1678-9, 
when he was in the seventy-fourth year of his 
age. In the mean time he preached many 
sermons to the young, and made other spe- 
cial efforts for their benefit. He had eleven 
children — eight sons »and three daughters. 
Four of his sons became Ministers of the Gos- 
pel. Joshua was born in England, came to 
this country with his parents, pursued the 
college course of studies and was graduated 
at Harvard Gollege in 1650; was ordained the 
Pastor of Southold, 06lober 7, 1674, and 
died February 28, 1 716-7. Jeremiah was 
born in England, April 6, 1631 ; was gradu- 
ated at Harvard with his brother Joshua in 
the class of 1650 ; was ordained at Topsfield, 
Massachusetts, 06lober 2, 1672 ; was dismiss- 
ed September 21, 1680; was installed the 



REV. PETER HOBARTS SONS. I /I 

Pastor of Hempstead, Long Island, in 1683; 
was dismissed thencs about seventeen years 
thereafter ; was installed the Pastor of Had- 
dam, Conne6licut, November 14, 1700; and 
died March 17 15, aged eighty-four years; 
His wife, Elizabeth Whitney, was a descend- 
ant of Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I. of 
England, and one of the ancestors of the dis- 
tinguished lawyer, Jeremiah Mason, of Boston* 
[See Walworth's Mason Genealogy. 15 N. 
E. Genealogical Register]. Gershom, another 
son of the Rev. Peter Hobart, was born in 
Hingham, Massachusetts; was graduated at 
Harvard in 1667; was ordained Pastor of 
Groton, Massachusetts, November 26, 1679; 
and died December 19, 1707, aged sixty-two 
years. Nehemiah was born in Hingham, No- 
vember 21, 1648; was graduated at Harvard 
in the same year as his brother Gershom. He 
preached two years at Newton, Massachusetts, 
and was then ordained there, December 23, 
1674, and died August 25, 17 12, aged sixty- 
three years. Another son, Japheth, also grad- 
uated in the same class with Gershom and 
Nehemiah. He was born at Hingham in 
April 1647; graduated when he was twenty 
years old, went two years afterward to Eng- 



\*}2 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLI). 

land as the surgeon of a ship, Intending td 
proceed thence to the East Indies ; but noth- 
ing more was ever heard of him. 

The Hon. Solomon Lincoln, the historian 
of Hingham, Massachusetts, and President of 
the Webster National Bank of Boston, has 
generously given me the benefit of his knowl- 
edge in respe6l to our second pastor. He 
writes : 

" Webster Bank, 
(39 State Street and 2 Congress Street,) 
Boston, June 27, 1862. 
Rev. Epher Whitaker, 

Dear Sir: ^ ^ * I have devoted a good 
deal of my time to the early history of the 
Town of Hingham in which I was born, and 
have copious notes respecting it, which I have 
collefted with a view (perhaps not soon to be 
realized) of publishing a more extended his- 
tory of Hingham than is contained in the 
small volume which I published some thirty- 
five years since. 

I suppose I can give as much Information 
relating to the Hobarts as can be procured 
elsewhere, and shall be very willing to corre- 
spond with you respe61ing them. 

^ ^ "^ I have long desired to 
trace the descendants of Joshua Hobart and 
to ascertain the precise line of the Bishop's 
ancestors. 



REVi JOSHUA HOBART. 173 

* * ^ John Sloss Hobart, the 
Judge, was a son of Rev. Noah Hobart, the 
distinguished minister of Fairfield, Connedli* 
cut. Noah was a son of Davidj a farmer of 
our Hingham, and David was a son of Rev. 
Peter Hobart." 

Subsequently Mr. Lincoln wrote me and 
said : 

" I enclose a memorandum of some fa(fts 
conne6led with the history of Rtv. Joshua 
Hobart, of Southold, which may be of use to 
you. I have given the authority for all my 
statements." 

The following is the memorandum mention- 
ed above. 

'' Rev. Joshua Hobart, son of Rev. Peter 
Hobart, the first minister of Hingham, Massa- 
chusetts, was born in England, and came to 
this country with his father, mother and three 
other children in 1635, (see Hobart's Diary,) 
was graduated at Harvard College in 1650, 
(College Catalogue,) went to Barbadoes in 
1655, (Manuscript of President Stiles,) and 
there married Margaret Vassal, daughter of 
William Vassal. Thence he went to London. 
He returned to New England in 1669, (Stiles.) 
His wife Margaret having deceased, he mar- 
ried Mary Rainsford at Boston, January 16, 
167 1-2, (Stiles.) He was settled in the min- 
istry at Southold, Long Island, October 7, 



174 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

1674, (American Quarterly Register, Vol. vlii, 
p. 336,) and died there the ' latter end of Feb- 
ruary 1 7 16-7,' (Hobart's Diary). He surviv- 
ed all who were educated before him at Har- 
vard, and it is believed all who were graduat- 
ed before 1659, (Am. Quarterly Register, 
Vol. viii, p. 336). Excepting Thomas Cheev- 
er, it is believed that he obtained the greatest 
age of any of the sons of Harvard during the 
first century of its existence, (Am. Quarterly 
Register, Vol. viii, p. 336). Of him Presi- 
dent Stiles remarks : ' He was an eminent 
physician, civilian and divine, and every way 
a great, learned, pious man.' How many 
children he had (if any) by his first wife is 
uncertain. In an account of his family fur- 
nished to Rev. Dr. Stiles by Rev. Noah Ho- 
bart of Fairfield, (a nephew of Rev. Joshua,) 
he says he thinks Rev. Joshua left three chil- 
dren by his first wife. This could not be ; for 
he was married to her April 16, 1656, and in a 
deed dated July 18, 1657, she is called his late 
wife, (Stiles). By his second wife, he had 
several children, namely: 'twins born 061:o- 
ber, 1672 — one died; the other was called 
Aletheia [that is, Truth ;] Irene [that is. 
Peace,] born at Boston, April 1674; Peter 
[that is, Stone,] born February 28, 1675-6 at 
Southold,' and perhaps others, (Stiles). Ac- 
cording to Rev. Noah Hobart's account, his 
uncle. Rev. Joshua, died at Southold ' some 
time in the winter of 16 16-7,' (Stiles)." 



Vassal relations. i 75 

Charles B. Moore, Esq. In his remarkably 
comprehensive, accurate and priceless " In- 
dexes of Southold," says that our second pas- 
tor sailed for Barbadoes July, 16, 1655 ; ^^' 
rived In London, July 5, 1656; and returned 
to New England September 5, 1659. 

Mr. Moore states, In respe6l to the first 
wife, Margaret Vassal, that William Vassal, 
the father, was deceased, and that Nicholas 
Ware was afting executor. He adds : 

" The dates arranged appear thus : 

1656. March 3. Deed signed by Afar^ar- 
et and Mary Vassal for interest In lands In 
Massachusetts. 

April 16. The marriage at Barbadoes, of 
Joshua Hobart and Margaret Vassal. 

May 8. The above deeds not yet deliver- 
ed In Massachusetts, and thus affedled by the 
marriage. Power of attorney by Nicholas 
Ware, executor, to Capt, Joshua Hubbard, of 
HIngham, to sell property in Massachusetts. 

1657. July 18. Deed of this date, signed 
by Joshua Hubbard, Judith Vassal and her 
husband, and Adams, husband of another sis- 
ter, stating that J. H. signed It 'on behalf of 
his late wife.' 

Enough Is not shown of this deed or release 
to know when or where It was signed by J. 
H., nor whether by the Captain, under a pow- 
er of attorney, or the clergyman as husband ; 



176 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD* 

if the latter, probably not until after Septem- 
ber 1659, when he returned* Prof; Stiles's 
MSSi, which give the precise date of his re- 
turn, state that he had three children by his 
first wife, and that she died four days after 
his return, which would be on the 9th of Sep- 
tember, 1659; and if she died, as was too 
common in child-birth or with a young child, 
after a sea voyage, there is no discrepancy in 
having three children ; nor anything very re- 
markable in the do6lor's charge for services, 
or in the mere date of a deed prepared to be 
signed by others first, and waiting such return 
for her signature, then altered and signed by 
the husband for his late wife. (See 17 N. E. 
Reg., p. 58)." 

This theory includes all the known fafts, 
and therefore has the advantage of every 
other which fails to give each the position 
that seems to be its proper place. 

The Rev. John Youngs died on the 24th 
of February 1672. The people of Southold 
were thus providentially bereft of pastoral 
oversight and care. But they were not will- 
ing to remain destitute of the ministry of 
God's word. On the contrary, they were 
prompt in their efforts to obtain a well quali- 
fied pastor. This is clearly manifest in the 
light of their adlion which is recorded as fol- 
lows in the Town Records, (Book B, p. Sj), 



AN HONESTj CODLY MAN. \^^ 

** April ye i, 1672. 

At a plenary meeting then held in South- 
old it was vetted then and . agreed that the 
inhabitants wold provid themselves of an 
honest godly man to performe the offis of a 
minister amongst them and that they wold 
allowe and pay to the said minister sixty 
pounds sterling by the yeare : and yt this pay 
should be Raised Ratte wise by estates as 
other Rattes are Raysed uppon all the inhab- 
itants. To which end it was agreed upon by 
vote that Captain John Youngs should go in 
to the bay and usse his best indevor for the 
obtaining of such a man above menshoned to 
live amongst us : and also agreed that he the 
said John Youngs should have five pounds for 
his labors and to dispach this his Trust some 
tyme be twixt the date hereof and the 29 of 
the next September — the which he promised 
to doe." 

''The bay" into which the eldest son of 
the first pastor was authorized to sail, in order 
to obtain a worthy, honorable, godly minister, 
was of course the Massachusetts Bay, in which 
colony the only college at that time in America 
had been doing its work for thirty-four years. 

The result of this effort to obtain a suitable 
pastor appears in the Town Records under 
date of May 22, 1674, (Book A, p. 159), as 
follows ; 



178 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

" Southold 22nd May 1674. 

*' In a publlque meeting the day & yeare 
abovesaid was voted & agreed by the Inhab- 
itants of the aforenamed place, that the Revd 
Mr. Joshua Huberd should heave & hould for 
his own his Heirs & Assignes use for ever a 
Tracft of land which said land is part of the 
Neck called Hallocks-neck & lyeth between 
the comon on the east & the land of Symon 
Grover, Nathan Moore and John Core senr 
on the west. And thirty acres of woodland 
lying towards the North Sea & joyning to the 
inclosed land of Mr. John Elton. And all the 
meadow lying in the Neck sometimes called 
by the name of Pooles neck. And a second 
lot of comonage. — Also the said Inhabit, have 
agreed & doe here promise to lay out one 
hundred pound upon a dwelling house for the 
said Rd Mr. Huburd. And have further 
agreed and concluded that the constable and 
seledlmen shall see that their Ministers due 
from the people be brought in to him yearly. 

"The Neck within named always was and 
is known by ye name of little Hogg-neck & 
not Poles neck though so worded through a 
mistake. And the name Pols neck is altered 
to ye ainciant name Little Hogg-neck by a 
clear voat at a Town meeting held ye 2d of 
April 1680. Also at the same meeting ye 
Town did engage to secure ye meadow. 



MR. hobart's settlements. 1 79 

'' Memorandum. 

" That in ye yeare one 
thousand six hundred seventy four it was 
agreed yt Mr. Hubart & his heirs & Assigns 
shall possess & enjoy for ever ye land form- 
erly in ye possession & occupation of John 
Core sen : bounded northward with Nathaniel 
Moore, & on ye westward with ye kreek." 

On the third of April 1674, (See Town 
Records, Book A, p. 57,) it was voted by the 
people that Mr. Hobart's yearly payments 
should end about the 25th of March, which 
was the beginning of the civil or legal year 
throughout England and the British dominions 
until the change from old style to new style 
in 1752. 

On the 13th of May, 1678, it was voted at 
a Town Meeting that the twenty pounds 
promised Mr. Hobart to be added to the four- 
score agreed to before he came hither, should 
be ratefied and paid to him as the other four- 
score. 

It is evident that he had a liberal settlement 
and support. A shilling then was worth 
about a dollar now, and a pound at that time 
nearly equivalent to a double eagle to-day. 
He received for his own forever, a settlement 
of some hundred acres of land, and a house 



l8b ^rstOllY OF SOUTHOLD. 

relatively as good as a dwelling worth four 
thousand dollars at the present day. This 
would be so valuable that only a few in the 
parish would equal it. His salary for the first 
four years was eighty pounds a year. This 
was relatively more than three thousand dol- 
lars would be now; and, four years after his 
ordination, it was increased to one hundred 
pounds annually, equivalent to four thousand 
dollars a year at the present time. The Town 
Records contain many transcripts of his re- 
ceipts for his salary, which was nearly always 
paid to him promptly at the end of each year 
during the forty-three years of his pastorate. 
It appears from his receipt for the year 1690, 
that seventy pounds and eight pence of his 
salary were paid by the people living west of 
Thomas Benedi6l's creek — now called Mill 
Creek — and twenty-nine pounds, eleven shil- 
lings and four pence were paid by those who 
lived east of Thomas's Creek. The town and 
parish at that time extended westward to 
Wading River, and the population had spread 
farther in that direction than the present lim- 
its of the town. On each side of Tom's creek 
there has been perhaps since that year some 
twenty fold increase of population; but on 



EXCHANGE OF LAND. iSl 

which side the greater relative increase, it 
might not be easy to determine with preci? 
sion. 

Closely conne6led with the settlement of 
the second pastor is a letter which he wrote 
to his people, April 3, 1685, namely: 

'' To my beloved friends and neighbors, 
the inhabitants of this Town, now assembled 
together at their Town Meeting : Salutation. 

Sirs: These lines are to request you to 
do me the like favor that you have often done 
to others since I came to this place, that is, 
to exchange the land that you gave me at the 
North-sea lots for the like value of land on 
Pine Neck where I have already a small rec- 
ompense, instead of such meadows as were 
promised elsewhere, but could not be obtain- 
ed, which as it is situated yields me no benefit 
at all. So are also the other lands at Norths 
sea lots wholly unuseful to me, the parcels 
being so far distant from each other. But if 
you would please to grant me this exchange, 
then I might make some advantage on Pine 
Neck that might satisfy me. But if you de^ 
ny me, as I hope you will not, for it will make 
both parcels altogether unprofitable to me, 
which I hope none of you do design. I shall 
take it as a great testimony of your love and 
respe61: to me if you grant me this my desire, 
which if you shall do, then if you please to 

choose one man in behalf of th^ Town to join 
16 



1^2 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

with another of yourselves whom I shall de- 
sire in my behalf for to estimate and effe6l 
this matter between us, your so doing will 
oblige me who am already and still to remain 
your friend and servant, 

Joshua Hobartt.'* 

The people promptly granted his request, 
and appointed Jonathan Horton, the youngest 
son of Barnabas Horton, to a6l in the matter. 

This exchange of land put him into the pos- 
session of all the more beautiful portion of 
Pine Neck — the lower part — extending the 
whole way across from Dickerson's Creek — 
now Jockey Creek — to Goose Creek. This 
part was the more convenient to him ; for his 
dwelling was built on Hallock's Neck, north- 
ward of the cove in which Dickerson's Creek 
and Young's Creek unite to flow into the Pe- 
conic Bay. Along the sand bar between this 
cove and the bay, teams can pass at low tide 
from Hallock's Neck to Pine Neck and return 
without difficulty, while boats can pass from 
one of these Necks to the other with ease at 
any stage of the tide. 

His dwelling was built a few rods southeast 
of the site of the present dwelling of Mr. 
Robert Linsley. Fragments of the materials 
of the chimney, now mingled with the com- 



THE OLD PARSONAGE. 1 83 

mon soil, mark the spot ; and the old well is 
able at this day to supply an abundance of 
sweet water, as it did two hundred years ago. 
I have often thought, while standing on the 
site of this old parsonage, that it was built in 
the most beautiful place for a residence with- 
in the bounds of the parish. It is the central 
point of a scene of land and water, and fields 
and woods, that never loses its charm from 
age to age. It is not less salubrious than 
pifturesque. The first master of the house 
lived in it for nearly a score of years after he 
had attained the proverbial three-score and 
ten. He retained the ownership of it for 
twenty-seven years, until he was more than 
seventy years of age, and then he sold it to 
the people of his charge, that it might remain 
a parsonage forever. This sale took place 
1 70 1, and the last payment for the property 
was made to Mr. Hobart two years later. It 
was subsequently the home of these pastors 
who succeeded him, the Rev. Messrs. Benjam- 
in Woolsey, James Davenport, William Throop 
and John Storrs, until 1787. 

There is an official list of the tax-payers of 
the Town made within a year of the second 
pastor's settlement. This gives us the names 



184 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

of the chief men and two of the women who 
were under his pastoral care at the beginning 
of his ministry. It is as follows : 

John Paine jC^^9 ^os 

Wm. Robinson 92 10 

John Greete 124 00 

Caleb Curtis 106 00 

Walter Jones 68 00 

Giddion Yongs 141 10 

Abraha. Whithere 159 00 

Tho. Terry 129 10 

John Tuthill 206 10 

Richard Browne 370 00 

Samll King 169 10 

Joseph Maps 20 10 

Samll Grouer 37 00 

Tho. Moore Junr 186 00 

Jonathan Moore 147 10 

Capt. John Youngs 228 00 

Mr. John Youngs Jr 148 00 

Peter Simons 18 00 

Mr. John ConkHn 358 10 

Jacob Conklin 130 00 

John Cory 44 00 

Richard Clark 62 00 

John Booth 147 00 

John Curwin 228 10 

Barnabs Horton 305 00 

Jonathan Horton 171 10 

Richard Beniamin 247 00 

Beniam. Moore 118 00 



TAX LIST. 185 

Mr. John Bud 300 00 

Abraham Cory 64 10 

Joshua Horton 197 00 

Barnabas Wines 152 00 

Isaac Ouenton 232 00 

Mr. Tho. Hucisson 176 10 

Jacob Cary 93 00 

Tho. Reeues 137 10 

John Reeues 54 10 

Thomas Rider 160 10 
John FrankKn & 

John Wigins 176 00 

Jeremy Valle 152 00 

Edward Petty 95 00 

Simon Grover 70 00 

Nathall Moore 32 00 

Mr. Thos. Moore Sr 127 00 

Joseph Yongs yS 00 

Isack Reeues 30 00 

Samuel Youngs 72 00 

Stephen Bayley 69 00 

Mr. John Youngs marinr 53 00 

Samll Glouer 75 10 

Beniam Yongs 142 00 

Christopr Yongs Sr. 120 10 

Peeter Paine 58 00 

Dainell Terry 126 00 

Peeter Dicisson 250 10 

Richard Cozens 22 00 

Nathall Terry 219 00 

Samll Wines yS 10 



l86 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

Mrs. Mary Welles 

Simieon Beniam 

Will Colleman 

Calib Horton 

Tho. Maps Jr. 

Thomas Tusteene 

Thomas Maps Sr 

Thomas Terrlll 

James Reeues 

Will Reeues 

John Swasie Sr 

John Swasie Jr 

Joseph Swasie 

Will Halloke 

John Hallok 

Richard Howell 

Thomas Osman 

Will Poole 

Christopher Yongs Junr 

John Sallmon 

James Lee 

Benin Horton 

Sarah Yongs 

On this list It Is written ; " Mr. John Bud 
not being at home Is lumpt at by ye last year 
accopt." 

The list contains eighty-two names. To 
these must be added twenty-five more, for 
those cases in which there were more than 
one adult male in the family ; and then taking 



217 


10 


106 


GO 


59 


00 


282 


00 


99 


00 


64 


GO 


227 


IG 


109 


GG 


244 


10 


69 


IG 


200 


GO 


62 


IG 


66 


GG 


361 


IG 


82 


GG 


11 


GG 


194 


GG 


114 


GG 


56 


GG 


26 


GG 


10 


GG 


232 


IG 


72 


IG 



WEALTHY MEN. 1 87 

away two for Mrs. Wells and Mrs. Youngs, 
the number of full grown men appears to be 
one hundred and five. Most likely a few 
were not put into this list. 

As to their possessions, let the shilling then 
be considered equal to the dollar now, and the 
Southold tax list of 1675 compares favorably 
with the last one made— that of 1880. Of 
the more wealthy men, Richard Brown is tax- 
ed for ^370 ; William Hallock, 361 10 ; John 
Conklin, 348 ; Barnabas Horton, 305 ; John 
Budd, 300. Below these figures we see Ca- 
leb Horton, 282 ; Peter Dickerson, 250 ; 
Richard Benjamin, 247 ; James Reeve, 244 ; 
Benjamin Horton, 232 10; Isaac Overton, 
232; John Corwin, 228 10; Capt. John 
Youngs, 228; Thomas Mapes, Sr., 227 10; 
Nathaniel Terry, 219 ; Mrs. Mary Wells, 217 ; 
John Tuthill, 206 10; and John Swezey, Sr., 
200. Barnabas Horton and four of his sons 
are assessed for ^i 188. Ten of the Youngs- 
es are assessed for ;^i 1 1 1 10. According to 
this list more of the property in the town be- 
longed to Barnabas Horton and four of his 
sons in 1675 than to all the inhabitants of any 
other family name. 



PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. JOSHUA HOBART.— Continued. 

1674-1717. 



CHAPTER V. 

Only six weeks after the ordination and set- 
tlement of the second pastor in Southold, the 
people here made another earnest effort to 
regain a firm and permanent union with the 
Colony of Conne61:icut, whose charter gave 
the freemen more desirable privileges and 
larger liberties than any other charter granted 
by an English Sovereign to an American 
Colony. Accordingly, they met in Town 
meeting on the 17th of November, 1674, and 
took the a61:ion of which the following is the 
record in Book B, p. 53 : 

''Southold, November 17, 1674. 
" First. We the inhabitants of sd towne be- 
ing legally mett together doe unanimously re- 
solve and owne, that we are at this present 
time under the government of his majestys 
Colony of Connetticut, and are desirous to 



192 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

use all good and lawfull means so to continue. 

" Secondly. We doe unanimously voat, and 
desire, that all spedy application be made to 
the government under which we are, that we 
may obtain their counsell and dire6lion how 
we are to answer the demands of the Honored 
Edmund Andres Esquire Governour of New 
York. 

'* 3ly. We doe voat & determine, that some 
men among us be constituted and appointed 
a standing comitty in trust for this Town, 
during these transa6lions, to manage the af- 
faires of concern 't to & about our lands and 
birth right priviledges, that may be urgent 
upon us eyther with Conneticutt our present 
government to whom under God we own our 
selves indebted for our proteftion & defence, 
and also with New York if we shall become 
under that government, this town being very 
remote which comitty shall have full power to 
aft all things that may be to our better inable- 
ment for his Majesties service, & to joyne 
with a like comitty of South or East Hampton. 

'' Entd here the day & year above 

''Expressed per me Benjamin Yongs Reed 
Mr. Joshua Hubard & Mr. Hutchson were 
chosen Comittee by & for said Town the 
day and year aforesaid." 




Autograph of Benjamin Youngs in 1674, 



EAST END SUBMITS. 1 93 

We can very well understand the occasion 
of these proceedings on the part of Mr. Ho- 
bart and his people when we call to mind that 
the Dutch recovered New York on the 30th 
of July, 1673, and thereupon the Towns on 
the East End of Long Island asked and ob- 
tained prote6lion from Conne6licut.. But as 
soon as the Dutch, on the loth of November, 
1674, surrendered New York to the English, 
the Duke of York, through his Governor, re- 
quired these Towns to submit themselves 
again to his authority. Andros was not back- 
ward to fulfil his commission in this matter. 
For this purpose, he sent hither Sylvester 
Salisbury, who subsequently became high 
sheriff of Yorkshire. When he reached 
Southold, he called the people together, and 
gave them the following notice : 

''December 10, 1674. Gentlemen: 
Know yee, that I am empowered by ye hon- 
ored Governer of New York, to receive the 
return of this place into the colony of New 
Yorke, and the government thereof, pursuant 
to his Majesty's royall graints to his Royall 
Highnesse ye Duke of Yorke. Where upon I 
doe declare to all, that I doe receive and ac- 
cept of ye return and surrender of this place 
from under ye Collony of Conne6licut, by 
whose prote6lion they have been secured 
17 



194 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

irom ye Dutch invasion, unto the obedience 
of his Royall Highnesse. As witness my 
hand at Southold the day and year above 
sayd. Silvester Salisbury."' 

The contest between the people of South- 
old and the Duke's government was an une- 
qual one, and the result of it is indicated by 
a paragraph in a letter of the Duke to his 
governor, Major Edmund Andros, dated " St. 
James's 6 Aprill 1675," as follows : 

'* I shall lett you know that I am well sat- 
Isfyed with your proceedings hitherto and yt 
you are in quiet possession of yt place, but 
more especially at your condu6l in reducing 
to obedience those 3 fra6lIous townes at ye 
East end of Long Island," &c. [Brodhead's 
Documents, Vol. Ill, p. 231]. 

The conne61ion with New York became 
more tolerable after the attainment of a Colo- 
nial Assembly, which had been long resisted 
by the Duke, but which was at length gained 
in 1683, when Gov. Dougan succeeded Gov. 
Andros. But the desire for union with Con- 
pe6licut was not dead ; and It revived again 
six years later, when the English Revolution 
of 1688, the flight of the king, and the conse- 
quent dissensions in New York between Leis- 
ler and his opponents gave hope of restoration 
to the New England Colony. Therefore the 



EUROPEAN AFFAIRS. 195 

people of Southold in June, 1689, made their 
last vain effort for this end. 

Great changes were taking place abroad on 
the larger field as well as in the narrow limits 
of Southold. London had been terribly af- 
flifted by the great plague in 1665, and the 
great fire in 1666. The invading Turks, who 
were taking possession of the fairest portions 
of Europe, had received a check in Hungary 
in 1664, but in 1669 they conquered Candia. 
Among the nations of Western Europe, the 
English had gained some advantage over the 
Dutch upon the sea. 

Colbert had raised France to the greatest 
height in military power and industrial pros- 
perity. His financial enterprise and skill both 
filled the public treasury and improved the 
condition of the people. Spain was humbled. 
But the revocation of the Edi6l of Nantes, 
06lober 18, 1685, expelled from the country 
the best half-million of people that France 
contained. They included the most skillful 
artisans. England and America received many 
of them. They formed twenty-two Protestant 
French churches in London alone, and there 
were eleven regiments of them speedily enroll- 
ed in the English army. 

England, in the year of the Rev. Joshua 



196 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Hobart's ordination and settlement, lost one 
of her worthiest sons, greatest statesmen, and 
most eminent writers, by the death of John 
Milton. But John Dryden and John Locke 
had now reached middle life, and Addison was 
two years old. Bunyan had come forth from 
his twelve years' Imprisonment In Bedford 
jail ; but It was not till 1678 that his Pilgrim's 
Progress came forth from the press and began 
a career of Immortality among men. 

In 1674 Jeremy Taylor had been dead seven 
years ; but Isaac Barrow lived three years af- 
ter this date, which was the very year wherein 
Richard Baxter published his .Vfethod of The- 
ology, and he lived seventeen years thereafter. 

In New England, the first generation were 
passing away. As they closed their eyes up- 
on the work of their hands in the new world, 
they saw It prosperous and peaceful. There 
were more than fifty thousand people in the 
Puritan colonies ; and the founders of these 
colonies, who passed into the unseen world 
with John Davenport and John Youngs, were 
gathered to their fathers, " closing a career of 
virtue In the placid calmness of hope, and la- 
menting nothing so much as that their career 
was finished too soon for them to witness the 



INDIAN RAVAGES. 1 9/ 

fullness of New England's glory." [Bancroft, 
Vol, II, p. 92]. 

But the first and second years ot Mr. Ho- 
bart's pastorate were years of New England's 
adversity. Its prosperity was arrested by In- 
dian wars. The savages burned villages, 
spoiled the frontier towns, tortured and killed 
all classes, and pursued the contest with the 
bloodiest determination for two years, until 
they were thoroughly overcome and King 
Philip was dead. The people of New Eng- 
land lost about 600 men, who were in the war, 
and as many houses, that became fuel for the 
flames kindled by the savages. One in twen- 
ty of the men perished, and one-twentieth of 
the families became houseless, while one-tenth 
of the property of the whole people would no 
more than meet the expense of the war. 

Danger from the savages was always a hin- 
drance and a burden in the early history of 
Southold. It was needful, in Mr. Hobart's 
day, as well as in previous years, to be ever 
vigilant. That the people maintained a care- 
ful defence appears in such records as this in 
1674: 

" Deacon Barnabas Wines and Richard 
Benjamin, Sen., are freed from training, 
watching and warding." 



igS HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

Both of these persons may have been freed 
on account of their office, as well as their age ; 
for in the same year that the second pastor 
was settled, the people in Town Meeting ap- 
pointed a grave-digger. They eledled Rich- 
ard Benjamin, whose home was immediately 
west of the church and cemetery, his land in- 
cluding that now occupied by Richard Car- 
penter, the present Sexton of the Church, and 
Richard S. Sturgis, the present Constable of 
the parish, and extending towards the resi- 
dence of Deacon Moses C. Cleveland. Mr. 
Benjamin was authorized to receive eighteen 
pence for the grave of each adult and twelve 
pence for that of each child. See Town Rec- 
ords, Book A, p. 162. 

In this year Mr. John Elton was chosen 
Constable, and Benjamin Youngs, Recorder. 







WELLS AUTOGRAPH. 199 

In the circumstances of the time and place, 
the Recorder was the most responsible civil 
officer of the Town. The reader will be pleas- 
ed to see the fac simile of the signature of 
William Wells and of Benjamin Youngs. For 
the use of the engraving which presents the 
handwriting of William Wells, special and 
grateful acknowledgment is due to the au- 
thor and copyright owners of the scholarly 
and elegant volume entitled "William Wells 
of Southold and his Descendants." It will be 
perceived that the dots are omitted over the 
" ij " in the genitive of the word Februarius, 
which Mr. Wells wrote *' Februarij," and not 
February. 

William Wells, Esq., had been Recorder 
until 1662, and from that time Richard Terry 
held this important office until the ele6lion of 
Benjamin Youngs, who filled the place from 
1674 until 1687. 

In the course of 1675 and 1676 it became 
evident, that the people here could not retain 
their union with Conne61:icut and enjoy the 
advantage of its liberties, the fellowship of its 
religion, and the prote6lion of its charter and 
government. For a long period, they had de- 
clined to accept a patent confirming the title 



200 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

to their lands under the Duke's authority, and 
they continued to withhold their submission 
until Andros threatened to treat them as en- 
emies who persistently refused to own the au- 
thority of their lawful sovereign. Thereupon 
they consented to accept a patent, and on the 
31st of Odlober, 1676, the Governor gave 
them one. It names as the patentees Isaac 
Arnold, Justice of the Peace ; Captain John 
Youngs; Joshua Horton, Constable; and 
Barnabas Horton, Benjamin Youngs, Samuel 
Glover and Jacob Corey, Overseers of the 
Town. These persons received the patent 
for themselves and their associates, the free- 
holders and inhabitants of the Town. The 
patentees, in accepting this patent, took care 
to exclude from its privileges two classes of 
persons : first, those who were only transient- 
ly here and had no ownership in the soil — all 
who had rights under the patent" must be own- 
ers of land. Another class that they took care 
to exclude consisted of all those who were 
freeholders but not inhabitants. They knew 
the evils of the proprietorship of non-resi- 
dents, and they were careful to guard against 
them. Hence they made it sure, by the pat- 
ent itself, that all who should possess the 



PATENT ACCEPTED. 20I 

rights and privileges which it granted, must 
be not only freeholders, owners of land, but 
also dwellers in the Town. 

The patentees, by their deed on the 27th 
of December, 1676, fulfilled the intention of 
the patent, and extended their rights under it 
to all the freeholders and inhabitants of the 

Town. 

This patent did not avowedly disturb nor 
diminish the religious rights and liberties of 
the people. They continued to transa6l the 
business of the Church in the Town Meeting. 
Soon after the issue of the patent, they in- 
creased the Minister's salary to the sum of 
;^ioo, and continued to assess and colleft it 
as a part of the regular tax upon all the tax 
payers of the place on the same principle 
that the tax for public schools is now assess- 
ed and colle6led, the Minister being on every 
Sabbath and many other times the chief and 
most important Teacher of the people of the 
Town. 

In preceding pages it has been said that 
the settlement of the Town had become per- 
manent and so far advanced by the summer 
of 1640 that the Indian title was purchased at 
that time. This purchase did not cover the 



202 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

whole territory afterwards included in the 
boundaries of the Town, and hence a second 
purchase was made of the Indians in 1649. 
This purchase included Cutchogue, Mattituck 
and Aquebogue, west of the first purchase. 
Subsequently another purchase was effe6led 
and the deed was drawn so as to include the 
whole territory of the Town. It was written 
as follows : 

To all people to whom this present writing 
shall come, greeting. Know ye, that whereas the 
inhabitants of Southold their predecessors or 
some of them, have in the right and behalf of 
the said Inhabitants and Township, purchased, 
procured and paid for, of the Sachems and Indi- 
ans our Anncestors, all that tra6l of land situate, 
lying and being, at the Eastward end of Long 
Island, and bounded with the River called in the 
English toung the Weading Kreek, in the Indian 
toung Panquaconsuk, on the West, to and with 
plum Island on the East, together with the Island 
called plum Island, with the Sound called the 
North Sea on the North, and with a River or arme 
of the sea wch runneth up between Southampton 
Land and the aforesaid traft of land unto a certain 
Kreek which fresh water runneth into on ye South, 
called in English the Red Kreek, in Indian Toy- 
onge, together with the said Kreek and meadows 
belonging thereto, and running on a streight line 
from the head of the aforenamed fresh water to 
the head of ye Small brook that runneth into the 
Kreek called panquaconsuk, as also all necks of 
lands, meadows, Islands or broken pieces of mead- 
ows, rivers, Kreeks, with timber woods, and wood- 



INDIAN DEED. 2O3 

lands, fishing, fouling, hunting, and all other com- 
modities whatsoever, unto the said Tra(5l of land, 
and Island belonging or in any wise appertaining, 
as Corchaug and Mattatuck and all other Tracts 
of land by what names soever named or by 
what name soever called ; and whereas the 
now Inhabitants of the aforenamed town of South- 
old, have given unto us whose names are under- 
written, being the true successors of the lawful and 
true Indian owners and proprietors of all the 
aforesaid tra6l of land and Isleand, fourty yards of 
Trucking cloth, or the wourth of the same, the 
receipt whereof and every part of the same we 
doe hereby acknowledg, and thereof acquitt and 
discharg the Inhabitants their heirs successors or 
assigns, and every of them by these presents. 

Now these presents witnesseth, that we whose 
names are under written, for the consideration 
aforementioned, hath given, granted, remised and 
confirmed, and doth by these presents, grant, re- 
mise and confirm unto Capt. John Yongs, Barna- 
bas Horton and Thomas Mapes, for and in behalf 
of the Inhabitants and Township of Southold, and 
for the use of the aforesaid Inhabitants, according 
to their and every of their severall and perticular 
dividends. To have and to hold to them and 
their heirs forever, by virtue of the afore recited 
bargain, bargains, gifts and grants of what nature 
or kind soever, made with our predecessors, we 
under written doe confirme all the aforenamed 
Tra6l or tra6ls of land, contained within the 
aforementioned bounds, as also plum Island, with 
warranty against us, our heirs, or any of us or 
them, or any other person or persons, claime, from 
by or under us, them, or any of us or them, as 
our, theirs, or any of one or their right, title or 
interest, as witness our hands and seals this 



204 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

seventh of December, 1665, in the Seventeenth 
yeare of ye reigne of our Soveraigne Lord 
Charles, by the grace of God, of England, Scot- 
land, France and Ireland, King, defender of the 
faith, &c. 
Ambuscow, x his mark, Noroumreg, x his mark, 
Hammaluks, x his mark, Washham,x his mark, 
Fanckeyuon, x his mark, Tontowish, x his mark, 
Kaheummash, X his mark, Ahambantowack.x his mark, 
Sowwannous, x his mark, Hatchedous, x his mark, 
Ounsoonquat, his mark, Hassegonhock, x his mark, 
Tiscom, X his mark, Passecoquin, x his mark, 

Pancamp, x his mark, Quaywoton, x his mark, 

Matvvackeom, x his mark, Patoynamhis, x his mark, 
Pimsham, x his mark, Secquannut, x his mark, 

Kinebounch, x his mark, Merkesump, x his mark, 
Aganchu, x his mark, Opscett, x his mark, 

Antakquasen, x his mark, Panmantanhis, x his mark, 
Namlyam, x his mark Keepcombhis, x his mark. 

Webinaug, x his mark, Odsay, x his mark, 
Quahso, X his mark, Maryack, x his mark, 

Winhayten, x his mark, Twones, x his mark, 
Jamacasse, x his mark, Tanghus, x his mark, 
Cantnsquan, x his mark, Sanysond, x his mark, 
Anquapine, x his mark. Posuassuck, x his mark, 
Chackeason, x his mark, Wegotaguati, x his mark, 
Munonex, x his mark. 

Sealed and delivered in ye presence of us, 

BENJAMIN YONGS. 
BENONI FLINT. 

The following is the text of the Town 
Patent : 

Edmund Andross, Esq., Seigneur of Sansmares, 
Lieut, and Governour Gen'll under his Royal high- 
nesse James, Duke of Yorke and Albany, and of 
all his territory in America. 

Whereas there is a certain Towne in the East 
Riding of Yorke Shire, upon Long Island, corn- 
only called and known by the name of South 



INDIAN DEED. 205 

tlold, scituate, lying and being- on the North side 
of the said Island, towards the Sound, haveing a 
certain Tra6l of land thereunto belonging, the 
Western bounds whereof extend to a certain 
river or Creeke called the Wading Creeke, in the 
Indian tongue Panquacunsuck, and bounded to the 
Eastward by Plumb Island, together with the said 
Island on the North with the Sound or North Sea, 
and on the South with an arme of ye Sea, or river 
which runneth up between Southampton Land and 
the aforesaid Tract of Land, unto a certain Creek 
which fresh water runneth into called in English 
the Red Creek, by the Indians, Toyongs, together 
with the Sd Creek and meadows belonging there- 
unto, (not contradi61:ing the agreement made be- 
tween their Towne and the Towne of Southton, 
after their Tryall at ye Assizes,) So running on a 
straight line from the head of the aforementioned 
fresh water, to the head of the small brook that 
runneth into the Creek called Panquacunsuk, in- 
cluding all the necks of Land and Islands within 
the afore described bounds and limitts, now for 
a confirmacon unto the present ffreeholders In- 
habitants of the said Towne and precints. 

Know yee that by virtue of his Ma'ties Letters 
Patt'ents and the Commission and authority unto 
me given by his Royal highness, I have Ratifyed, 
confirmed and granted, and by these presents do 
hereby Ratify, confirme and grant unto Isaack Ar- 
nold, Justice of the Peace, Capt. John Young, Josh- 
ua Horton, Constable, Barnabas Horton, Benjamin 
Young, Samuel Glover and Jacob Corey, Overseers 
as Patentees, for and on the behalf of themselves 
and their associates, the ffreeholders and Inhabi- 
tants of the Sd Towne, their heires, Successors and 
Assigns, all that aforemenconed Tra6l of land, 
with the necks and Islands within the Sd bounds, 

18 



2o6 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

sett forth and described as afores'd, Together 
with all Rivers, Lakes, waters, Quarryes, Timber, 
Woods, woodland, Plaines, meadows, broaken 
pieces of meadows, Pastures, Marshes, ffishing, 
hawking, hunting and ffowling, and all other pro- 
ffits, commodities, emoluments and hereditaments 
to the sd towne, tra6l of land and premises, with- 
in the Limmitts and Bounds aforemenconed, de- 
scribed, belonging, or in any wise appertaining ; 
To have and to hold, all and singular the sd lands, 
hereditaments and premises, with their and every 
of their Appurtenances, and of every part and 
parcell thereof to the Sd Patentees and their As- 
sociates, their heirs, Successors and Assigns, to 
the proper use and behoofes of the said Patentees, 
their Associates, their heirs. Successors and As- 
signes forever. The tenure of the Sd Lands and 
premises to bee according to the custome of the 
manner of East Greenwich, in the County of 
Kent, in England, in free and Common Soccage, 
and by fealty onely, Provided, allwayes notwith- 
standing, That the extent of the Bounds before 
recited, do no way prejudice or infringe the par- 
ticular propriety of any person or persons who 
have Right by Patent, or other Lawfull claime to 
any part or parcell of land or Tenements within 
the Limitts afores'd, onely that all the sd Lands 
and Plantacons, within the sd Limitts or Bounds, 
shall have relacon to Towne in Generall for the 
well government thereof; and if it shall so hap- 
pen that any part or parcel of the Sd Lands, with- 
in the bounds and Limmitts aforedescribed, be not 
allready Purchased of the Lidyans, it may bee 
purchased (as occation) according to Law. I do 
hereby likewise confirme and grant unto the Sd 
Patentees and their Associates, the heires. Succes- 
sors and Assignes, all the priviledges and Immuni- 



INDIAN DEED. 267 

tyes belong-incr to a Towne within this Governm't 
and that the place of their present habitacon and 
abode shall continue and retaine the name of 
South Hold, by which name and stile it shall be 
distinguished and knowne in all bargains and sales, 
Deeds, Records and writings, They making im- 
provement on the Sd land, and conforming them- 
selves according to law, and yielding and paying 
therefore, yearly and every year, unto his Royall 
highnesse use as a Quit Rent, one fatt Lamb, unto 
such officer or officers there in authority, as shall 
be empowered to receive the same. Given under 
my hand, and Sealed with the Seale of the Prov- 
ince in New York, the 31st day of 06lober, in the 
28th yeare of his Ma'ties Raigne. Anno of Domini, 
1676. 

E. ANDROSS. 
Examined by me, 
MATTHIAS NICOLLS, Secy. 

The deed of confirmation was drawn as follows : 
To all Christain people greeting. Know yee 
that we ye underwritten, haveing this yeare receiv- 
ed a patent from Sr Edmond Andross, Knight, 
Governor for his Royall Highness the Duke of 
York and Albany, and dated at New-York in ye 
31 day of 06lober, in ye yeare 1676, in the behalf 
of our selves and of all the freeholders Inhabitants 
of this Towne, who are therein called Associats, 
wherein is contained a confirmation of all ye Lands 
pertaining to, and now in the possession of the re- 
spe6live freeholders of sd towne of Southold, with 
all such rights, liberties and properties, as are 
more at large in sd patent contained. All which 
freeholders, we doe fully own, admitt and declare 
to be our onely associats in sd patent, and no 
others, to whom we do hereby give full power to, 



208 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

To have and to hold, possess and enjoy, to them- 
selves, their heirs and assigns for ever, all such 
comon rights as are contained in sd patent, and all 
such particular shars and allottments, which are 
now in their possessions, as fully, amply and free- 
ly, as if they and every of them had been therein 
named. And in further confirmation of all their 
properties, and shares in the premises, to such our 
Associats, their heirs forever, we have caused to 
be recorded in the page next following, all such 
perticular rights, tra6ls, and parcells of Land, as 
doe of right appertaine and belong unto them, 
their heirs and assigns in sd patent and Township. 
In testimony whereof, we the patentees, have 
hereunto affixed our hands and seals, in Southold, 
ye 27 day of December, in the 28 yeare of the 
reigne of our Soveraign Lord, Charles the 2d, of 
England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King, de- 
fender of the faith, &c., and in ye yeare of our 
Lord, 1676. 

ISAAC ARNOLD, 
JOHN YONGS, 
JOSHUA HORTON, 
BENJ. YONGS, 
SAMUEL GLOVER, 
JACOB COREY. 
Sealed and delivered in presence of these wit- 
nesses, 

JOHN GARDINER, 
LION GARDINER. 

The heirs of the '' Freeholders and Inhabi- 
tants," who held under the foregoing Patent 
and Deed of Confirmation subsequently ob- 
tained the enadlment of the following laws : 



LAND LAWS. 209 

An A61 relative to the comon and undivided 
Lands and meadows in Southold, in the County 
of Suffolk. Passed the 8th of April, 1796. 

1. Whereas the proprietors of the comon and 
undivided Lands and meadows in Southold, by 
their petition to the Legislature, have requested 
Legislative aid, to enable them more advanta- 
geously to improve their said lands and meadows; 
Therefore, 

Be it ena6led by the people of the state of New- 
York, represented in Senate and Assembly : That 
it shall and may be lawful for the said proprietors 
to meet on the second Tuesday in April next, at 
the house of Moses Case in Southold aforesaid, 
and annually thereafter on the second Tuesday of 
April, at such a place as a majority of them shall 
dire6l, and at every such meeting the said prepri- 
etors or a majority of them who shall be present, 
may make such prudential rules and regulations 
for the better improving and managing their said 
common and undivided lands and meadows, as 
they shall judge proper ; which rules and regula- 
tions shall be entered in a book, to be provided 
for that purpose by a clerk to be chosen at every 
such meeting. 

2. And be it further ena6led, That the said pro- 
prietors at every such meeting, may ele6l three 
Trustees, to have the superintendance and man- 
agement of their said lands and meadows, accord- 
ing to such rules and regulations as aforesaid to 
be m^ade at such meetings. And be it further en- 
afted. That the said trustees, or a majority of 
them, or the survivers of them, may sue for and 
recover for the use of the said proprietors, all such 
penalties as shall be made for the breach of the 
said rules and regulations, so to be made as afore- 
said. Provided always that no penalty for any 



5IO HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

one offence shall exceed the sum of three pounds. 
And be it further ena6led, That the said Trustees 
may call a special meeting of the said proprietors, 
whenever they shall judge the same to be neces- 
sary, by advertising the same at three different 
meeting houses in Southold aforesaid, six days 
previous to the meeting, and the proceedings of 
such meeting shall be as good and valid as if they 
were done at the annual stated meetings, as afore- 
said. 

3. And be it further ena6led. That the votes of 
the said proprietors at such meeting as aforesaid, 
shall be counted, according to the number of rights 
owned by each proprietor who shall vote at such 
meeting. 

An A61 to amend the a6l, entitled '* An A61 
relative to the common and undivided lands and 
meadows in Southold, in the County of Suffolk," 
passed April 8, 1796. Passed November 26, 1847. 

The People of the State of New-York, repre- 
sented in Senate and Assembly, do ena6l as fol- 
lows : 

1. The trustees mentioned in the a6l entitled 
'• an a6l relative to the common and undivided 
lands and meadows in Southold, in the County of 
Suffolk," are authorized and empowered to prose- 
cute and maintain in their own names, with the 
addition of their name of office, a6lions of eje(?t- 
ment for the recovery of the common and undivid- 
ed land in Southold ; and a6lions of trespass for 
injuries thereto or entries thereon, and for proper- 
ty taken therefrom, for the use of the proprietors 
of the said land. 

2. No suit commenced by said trustees as afore- 
said, shall be abated or discontinued by the death 
of said trustees, or either of them ; but the court 
in which such a6lion is pending, shall substitute 



REV. MR. HOBARt's ACTIVITY. 2 T I 

the names of the successors upon the application 
of such successors of the adverse party. 

3. The said Trustees whose names shall be used 
for the prosecution of any such suit, at the time 
any judgment shall be rendered therein, shall be 
personally liable for the payment of all costs which 
may be recovered against them in such suit ; and 
execution for the colle6lion thereof may be issued. 

Mr. Hobart was prominent in the civil and 
industrial interests of the people from the be- 
ginning of his ministry. He was not only 
the chairman of the committee with full pow- 
er on the political relations of the Town to 
Connedlicut and to New York ; but he was 
also executor of wills and referee in cases of 
disagreement as to transactions and accounts 
in ordinary business. He was a6live in the 
introdu6lion and establishment of new 
branches of manufadlure and the mechanic 
arts in the place. [Town Records, Book D, 
page 116.] He engaged more or less in the 
pracSlice of medicine. He seems to have been 
the first person to whom the people entrusted 
the care of the poor, giving him due compen- 
sation therefor. See Town Record, Book D, 
page II. During his pastorate the sphere of 
religion and of its ministry was eminently 
biblical and liberal. It included within its 
range every important interest of the people 



512 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

for time and for eternity — for earth and for 
heaven. Mr. Hobart was a citizen as well as 
a Christian, and every thing that concerned 
the public or the private welfare of the people 
concerned him. 

Thus the tide of human life here flowed on- 
ward. The rights of all were most faithfully 
regarded by the people generally, and every 
man was expe6led to keep in his own place 
and to do his duty in it. Advantage or dis- 
tinction was not to be grasped without ability 
and merit, nor at the expense of the public 
justice or welfare, or in disregard of the rights 
of any person. 

This respefh for the proper standing and 
just claims of all persons most conspicuously 
appears in the proceedings of the Town Meet- 
ing whereof the records are as follows : 

''Southold, Feb. ii, 1683-4. 
*' Voted, that Capt. Youngs and Mr. Isaac 
Arnold should have liberty to set up a pue at 
the west end of the pulpit for themselves and 
families." See Town Records, Book D, page 
106. 

Capt. John Youngs, the eldest son of the 
first Pastor, was at this time the most promi- 
nent and influential citizen in civil affairs on 



SEATING THE MEETING HOUSE. 213 

Long Island ; and Mr. Arnold in the same re- 
lations within the limits of Southold was sec- 
ond to no other than Capt. Youngs. They 
were, moreover, nearest neighbors to each 
other. It was on these considerations doubt- 
less that the liberty was granted them to 
make for themselves a place of distin6lion and 
preference in the Meeting House. A few 
weeks after the privilege was conferred upon 
them, the Town took its usual course to as- 
sign every other man his proper place and 
the record thereof was made as follows : 

" Southold, April 3, 1684. 
" Chosen Thomas Mapes Senr Mr. Thomas 
Moore Senr John Tuthill & Caleb Horton to 
seate ye Inhabitance of this Town in ye meet- 
ing house." See Town Records Book D, p. 
107. 

Another record of special interest in the 
history of the Church is this, namely : 

" Desimber ye 15th 1684. 

"Ther was Then by vote Samuell Youngs 
and Thomas Clarke both carpender to vewe 
and apprize ye old meeting hous, in order to 
make a county prison of said house, and upon 
theire return they gave in they valued the 
Body of the house at Thirty-five pounds." 

" Ye four Seder windows left out of ye new 



214 HISTORY OF SOUTPiOLD. 

meeting house was sold to Jonathan Horton 
for three pounds in town payment." Town 
Records, Book D, page io8. 

These dates fix the time, or at least indi- 
cate the year, when the first Meeting House 
was converted into a County Jail ; when the 
second Meeting House was eredled ; and 
when the two-story part of the Horton house 
was added to the original edifice built soon 
after the settlement of the Town by Barnabas 
Horton. This addition was made by Jonathan 
Horton, youngest son and chief heir of Bar- 
nabas Horton. This house is on the north 
side of the street and faces south. Through 
the courtesy of the Messrs. Harper & Broth- 
ers an artistic pidlure of this house is repro- 
duced on the opposite page, from Harpers* 
New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 341, p. 
715. The oldest part is the west end. It is 
the east end, the highest part, that was built 
in part for the use of the County Court, whose 
sessions for many years were held in this 
most ancient and pi61:uresque building. The 
Court of Sessions for Suffolk County was 
holding its term at Southampton in 1683-4 
when it ordered a prison to be constru6led in 
Southold. The people here with wisdom and 



CHANGES OF POPULATION. 2 I 7 

thrift turned their old fortification-Hke Meet- 
ing House into the required prison, and erect- 
ed a new edifice more appropriate for their 
pubhc worship and other uses in less warlike 
times. See Town Records, Book D, p. 219. 
They probably built this on the north side of 
the street, nearly opposite the first one, which 
had now become a jail. The Third meeting 
House, which immediately preceded the pres- 
ent one, stood on the north side of the street 
and opposite the site of the first. 

For a few years after the building of the 
new meeting house, in 1684, ^^ events of im- 
portance known to us marked the peaceful 
history of the pastor and his flock in their Isl- 
and home. There were, of course, the cease- 
less changes of this transient life — one gener- 
ation was passing away and another generation 
coming. Some were seeking new homes in 
other places ; and others were fixing their 
habitations here. Some of these changes are 
indicated by a comparison of the tax-lists of 
1675 and 1683. 

The list of 1683 contains ninety-eight names, 
as follows : 

Mr. John Budd £35^ 00 s 

Jeremiah Vail Sr, 74 00 

J9 



2l8 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

John Paine Jr 
Jasper Griffing 
Henry Case 
Lot Johnson 
Simon Grover 
Nathaniel Moore 
Thomas Moore Sr 
Joseph Youngs 
Samuel Youngs 
Peter Paine 
Christopher Youngs 
Stephen Bailey 
John Bailey 
John Youngs, mariner 
Benjamin Youngs 
John Salmon 
Mr. John Booth 
John Carwine 
Thomas Prickman 
Jonathan Horton 
Richard Benjamin 
Benjamin Moore 
Jeremiah Vail Jr 
John Hallock 
Abraham Corey 
Ann Elton 
Joshua Horton 
Isaac Oventon 
Barnabas Wines 
Jacob Corey 
Theophilus Case, 



40 


00 


11 1 


00 


35 


00 


19 


00 


n 


00 


46 


00 


49 


00 


98 


00 


84 


00 


56 


00 


80 


00 


103 


00 


18 


00 


58 


00 


123 


00 


41 


00 


131 


00 


131 


06 


42 


00 


440 


13 


m 


00 


80 


10 


103 


00 


80 


00 


76 


00 


11 


00 


^n 


00 


100 


10 


122 


00 


92 


00 


109 


00 



TAX LIST OF 1683. 219 



The widow Terry 
ohn Reeve 


97 
76 


00 
00 


Daniel Terry 
Peter Dickerson 


141 
121 


00 
00 


Thomas Dickerson 


83 


00 


Joseph Reeve 
Nathaniel Terry 
William Wells 


65 
73 
85 


00 
00 
00 


_ osiah Wells 


81 


00 


Samuel Wines 


82 


00 


Simeon Benjamin 


"7 


00 


Gershom Terry 
ohn Goldsmith 


84 

121 


00 
00 


Thomas Mapes Jr 


128 


00 


Caleb Horton 


350 


00 


Benjamin Horton 


267 


00 


William Coleman 


78 


00 


William Reeve 


100 


00 


Thomas Tuston 


66 


00 


Theophilus Curwin 
Thomas Mapes Sr 


84 
244 


00 
00 


^ ames Reeve 


228 


00 


Thomas Terrill 


105 


00 


Peter Aldrich 


40 


00 


Thomas Osman 


228 


00 


William Hallock 


236 


00 


Thomas Hallock 


81 


00 


_ ohn Swazey 


202 


00 


Joseph Swazey 
John Franklin 
Thomas Rider 


99 

33 
166 


00 
00 
00 


Jacob Conklin 


lOI 


00 



^3 


oo 


321 


oo 


46 


oo 


57 


oo 


202 


oo 


225 


oo 


44 


oo 


57 


oo 


68 


oo 


^37 


oo 



2 20 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

John Hopson 
John Conkhn 
WilHam Hopkhis 
John Racket 
Jonathan Moore 
John Youngs Jr 
Christopher Youngs 
Timothy Martin 
John Wiggins 
Thomas Moore Jr 
Richard Brown Sr^ 
Richard Brown Jr V 386 00 

Jonathan Brown ) 
John TuthiU Sr 239 00 

John Tuthill Jr 99 00 

Samuel King 150 00 

Abraham Whittier 180 00 

Thomas Terry 139 00 

Gideon Youngs 173 00 

John Paine Sr 94 00 

Edward Petty 62 00 

John Loring 76 00 

Samuel Glover 104 00 

Caleb Curtis 108 00 

Cornelius Paine 81 00 

Richard Howell q8 00 

Thomas Booth 45 00 

John LIman 18 00 

Ebine. Davis 30 00 

Richard Edgecomb 18 00 

John Booth Jr 18 00 

Jonathan Reeve 30 00 



ADDITIONAL TAX PAYERS. 



221 



On the list of 1675 are some twenty names 
which do not appear on that of 1683, namely: 



Richard Clark 
John Corey 
Richard Cozens 
John Greete 
Samuel Grover 
Barnabas Horton 
-John Halloch 
Thomas Hutchinson 
Walter Jones 
James Lee 



Joseph Mapes 
William Poole 
William Robinson 
Isaac Reeve 
Thomas Reeve 
John Swezey Jr 
Peter Simons 
Mrs. Mary Wells 
Capt. John Youngs 
Sarah Youngs 



Thomas Moore Jr 
On the other hand, the list of 1683 con- 
tains the following names which are not found 
in " the estimation" officially attested eight 
years earlier, namely: 



Peter Aldridge 
John Bailey 
Richard Brown Jr 
Jonathan Brown 
Thomas Booth 
John Booth Jr 
Henry Case 
Theophilus Case 
Theophilus Corwin 
Thomas Dickerson 
Ebenezer Davis 
Ann Elton 
Richard Edgecomb 



Lot Johnson 
John Loring 
John Liman 
Timothy Martin 
Thomas Moore Jr 
John Osman 
Thomas Prickman 
Cornelius Paine 
Joseph Reeve 
Jonathan Reeve 
John Rackett 
Joseph Swezey 
The widow Terry 



2 22 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLI). 

Jasper Griffing Gershom Terry 

John Goldsmith John Tuthill Jr 

Thomas Hallock Jeremiah Vail Jr 

John Hopson' William Wells 

William Hopkins Josiah Wells 

Thus it seems that in the course of eight 
years the names of twenty-one tax-payers had 
disappeared from the list and in the same 
time thirty-six had been added. These fa6ls 
make it evident, that in the first part of the 
second pastor's ministry, his people were in- 
creasing at the rate of two families or tax pay- 
ers a year. 

These lists of two hundred years ago indi- 
cate also that the richer men of the seven- 
teenth century, to a greater extent than the 
poorer ones, have sent down their family 
names and perpetuated them in the old Town 
until the present day ; for instance, those of 
Benjamin, Brown, Budd, Conklin, Corwin, 
Dickerson, Hallock, Horton, Mapes, Overton, 
Reeve, Swezey, Terry, Tuthill, Wells, and 
Youngs, nearly all remain here; and these 
are all that are assessed for more than two 
hundred pounds each in the earliest list ; 
while the names of Cozens, Colem.an, Lee 
and Tusten, together with Johnson, Prickman, 



JOHN HERBERT. 2 2|. 

Hopson, Hopkins, Martin, Loring, Liman, 
Edgecomb, have, I believe, utterly vanished 
away ; and the estates of these latter were 
estimated at comparatively small amounts. 

In 1697,. th^ people, in their Town Meeting,, 
appointed four men to agree with John Her- 
bert upon a price for his house-home-lot^ be- 
ing two acres in Calves' neck, and two lots of 
meadow in Cutchogue, and two lots of undi- 
vided commonage. They agreed for seventy- 
five pounds in silver. And on the loth of 
November, 1697, it was ordered, that this 
house-home-lot land in Calves' neck be and 
remain to be for such minister or ministers as 
may be chosen and accepted by the major 
part of the inhabitants for the future. 

This John Herbert was the son of John 
Herbert, a shoemaker from Northampton, 
England, who probably came to America in 
1635, when he was twenty-three years of age. 
He was living in Salem, Massachusetts, in 
1637, ^^d ^^^ there admitted a freeman the 
next year. His wife's name was Mary, and 
their daughter Mary was baptized in Salem on 
the 29th of March, 1640, and their son John 
born on the 15th of 061:ober, 1643. The fam- 
ily removed to Southold as early as 1652. 



2 24 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

The next year, the father was at New Haven 
with Thomas Moore ; and he was there in 
1655 also, with John Budd and others. He 
had business in that place, in this latter year, 
about the will of James Haines, to which he 
had been a witness in 1652. He is said to 
have died in 1655. Letters of administration 
were granted to his widow, Mary Herbert. 
His estate was appraised on the 5th of Sep- 
tember, 1658, by William Wells and Thomas 
Moore, and the inventory amounted to ^249 
19s. His widow lived at least three years 
after the death of her husband. [Moore's 
" Indexes."] The Rev. John Davenport wrote 
on the 4th of August, 1658, to the right wor- 
shipful John Winthrop, and said, among other 
things: "Mr Harbert of Southold is so ill at 
Manhadoes that there is little if any hope of 
his life." See Rev. Dr. Bacon's Historical 
Discourses, page 373. If this was our John 
Herbert of the first generation, and there 
seems to have been no other of the name 
known to have been here, he must have died 
in 1658. 

The son John owned land at Orient, " Oys- 
ter Ponds," in 1665, and gave a quit-claim to 
the inhabitants of the Town for several par- 



CHURCH TRUSTEES. 225 

eels in 1693. ^^ 1699, he delivered deeds for 
lands to Jonathan Paine and Joseph Swezey, 
and in 1700 he gave a deed to John Tuthill 
for one hundred acres in Orient. He was 
then living in Reading, Massachusetts. 
Twelve years later, he sold fifty acres on the 
Sound to John Paine. It was in 1699 that he 
made the deed for the land whereon the pres- 
ent church edifice, as well as the parsonage, 
now stands. This property and all other 
property which the Church was using passed, 
of course, into the hands of the Board of 
Trustees of the Church when the State of 
New York, soon after the close of the Revo- 
lutionary war, on the 6th of April, 1784, in 
the seventh session of the Legislature, held in 
the city of New York, ena6led a law, to ena- 
ble all the religious denominations in this 
State to appoint Trustees, to be a Body Cor- 
porate, for the purpose of taking care of the 
temporalities of the respedlive congregations, 
and for other purposes therein mentioned. 
The preamble of this law recites the thirty- 
eighth article of the Constitution of the State, 
and declares the duty of Government to en- 
courage virtue and religion. The first article 
of the a6l makes it lawful for the male persons 



2 26 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

of full age In the congregations to elc6l Trust- 
ees. The second se6lIon prescribes the mode 
of ele6lion. The third scdiion requires the 
officers of the ele6lion to file a certificate duly 
attested to be recorded by the Clerk of the 
County in a book to be kept by him for the 
purpose. The fourth sedlion ena61:s " that 
the said persons so to be elefted, returned, 
and registered shall be and hereby are declar- 
ed to be the trustees for the said church, 
congregation or society for which they shall 
be so chosen, and shall be and hereby are au- 
thorized and empowered to take into their 
charge, care, custody and possession all the 
temporalities belonging to the said church, 
congregation or society, for which they shall 
be ele6led trustees, whether the same consist 
of lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods or 
chattels, and whether the same shall have 
been given, granted or devised dire^lly to the 
said church, congregation or society, or to any 
persons in trust to and for their use ; and al- 
though such gift, grant or devise may not 
have stri6lly been agreeable to the rigid rules 
of law, or might on stri6l constru6lion be de- 
feated by the operation of the statutes of mort- 
main." This fourth se6lion also enadls that 



HON. EZRA LHOMMEDIEU. 22 7 

the said trustees shall be a body corporate 
and " shall lawfully have, hold, use, exercise 
and enjoy all and singular the churches, meet- 
ing houses, parsonages, burying places, and 
lands thereunto belonging, with the heredita- 
ments and appurtenances heretofore by the 
said church, congregation or society held, oc- 
cupied or enjoyed by whatsoever name or 
names, person or persons, the same were pur- 
chased and had, or to them given or granted, 
or by them or any of them used and enjoyed 
for the uses aforesaid, to them and their suc- 
cessors, to the sole and only proper use and 
benefit of them the said trustees and their 
successors forever, in as full, firm and ample 
a manner in the law as if* the said trustees 
had been legally incorporated and made capa- 
ble in law to take, receive, purchase, have, 
hold, use and enjoy the same at and before 
the purchasing, taking, receiving and holding 
of the said churches, meeting houses, parson- 
ages, burying places, and lands thereunto be- 
longing, and lawfully had, held, and enjoyed 
the same ; any law, usage, or custom to the 
contrary hereof, in any wise notwithstanding." 
This law, it is highly probable, was written 
by the Hon. Ezra L'Hommedieu, a member 



2 28 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

of the First Church of Southold. He was the 
most prominent member of the church and 
the most eminent citizen of the town, and per- 
haps of the county, at the time. He had rep- 
resented the Island in the Congress of the 
United States as a member from the State of 
New York during the course of the Revolu- 
tionary war, four years from 1779 to 1783 ; 
and after the establishment of peace and in- 
dependence, he deemed it his duty to enter 
the Senate of the State and take the chief 
place in the Legislature, in order most wisely 
to shape the great body of legislation which 
the condition of the country and the circum- 
stances of the time demanded. He was a 
member of the State Senate sixteen consecu- 
tive years, from 1784 to 1799 except one year 
in 1792-3. He had been a member of all the 
Provincial Congresses of New York, including 
the Fourth, which framed and adopted at 
Kingston the First Constitution of the State, 
in the Spring of 1777. He was in 1801 a 
member of the celebrated Convention which 
was ele61:ed to interpret some of the parts of 
the Constitution of the State, and to deter- 
mine how many members there should be in 
each house of the Legislature. He was re- 



CHURCH LAWS OF NEW YORK. 229 

peatedly a member of the Council of Appoint- 
ment which had the power until 1821 to se- 
le6l nearly every civil, military and judicial 
officer of the Commonwealth. He was the 
foremost of all men who had lived all their 
life from birth to death in Southold. From 
1787 till his death, Sebtember 28, 181 1, 
he was a Regent of the State University. He 
did much to give prominence to Gen. William 
Floyd, whose sister was his wife. As the 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the 
Senate, he wrote many of the laws which were 
ena61:ed by the Legislature, after the establish- 
ment of peace, when the State of New York 
began the most magnificent career of en- 
terprise and prosperity under the operation of 
these laws. Among the most beneficent of 
these wise and salutary enactments was this 
statute for the ele6lion of Trustees of Church- 
es. According to the power and directions 
of this general law, the First Church of South- 
old was the earliest in Suffolk County — the 
earliest on Long Island also — to ele61: its trus- 
tees and file its certificate of incorporation.* 



* Flatbush elecled Trustees of its Reformed Dutch 
Church, July 31, 1784. Furman's, " Anticjuities of Longf 
Island," pp, 125, 126. 

20 



,230 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

See Book A of Certificates of Religious Cor- 
porations, page I, in the County Clerk's of- 
fice for the first certificate recorded as follows, 
namely : 

" We, William Horton and Freegift Wells, 
the Deacons of the First Church, Congrega- 
tion or Society in Southold, do by these pres- 
ents certify, that on Tuesday the twenty-ninth 
day of June at two o'clock in the afternoon 
of the same day an ele6lion was held at the 
meeting house of the said first congregation 
or society in Southold for the purpose of 
choosing Trustees for taking the charge of 
the estate and property belonging to the said 
congregation agreeably to an A61 of the Leg- 
islature passed the sixth of April 1784 enti- 
tled * an A61 to enable all religious Denomin- 
ations in this State to appoint Trustees,' &c. 
Which said meeting holding the said ele6lion 
being duly notified at the said time and place, 
the ele6lors present qualified to vote by a 
majority of voices did ele6l Deacon Freegift 
Wells, Jared Landon, Esquire, and Major 
Joshua Goldsmith, Trustees of the Temporal- 
ities of the first congregation or society in 
Southold 

" That immediately after the said ele6lion the 
said Trustees were divided by Lott into three 
classes, and the seat of Jared Landon, Esquire, 
being the first class, becomes vacant at the 
expiration of the first year ; the seat of Major 



CHURCH TRUSTEES. 23 I 

Joshua Goldsmith being the second class be- 
comes vacant at the expiration of the second 
year ; and the seat of Deacon Wells being the 
third class becomes vacant at the expiration 
of the third year. 

" That there being no elders or church war- 
dens belonging to the said congregation, we 
the above named William Horton and Free- 
gift Wells, Deacons as aforesaid, presided at 
the said ele6lion and are the returning officers 
thereof as dire6led by the said a6t. 

William Horton. 
Freegift Wells." 

" Southold, June 29, 1784. 

Suffolk County, ss. 

'' Personally appeared before me Thomas 
Youngs, Esquire, one of the Judges of the 
Inferior Court of Common Pleas in and for 
the said County, William Horton and Free- 
gift Wells, Deacons of the First Church, Con- 
gregation or Society in Southold, and acknowl- 
edged the within certificate to be their a6l 
and deed, and I having examined the same 
do allow it to be recorded. 

''Attest: Thomas Youngs, Judge. 
" Recorded the 4th of April 1785. 

. E. L'Hommedieu, Clk." 

Our worthy church-member who probably 
wrote the law for the appointment of Trustees, 
most likely wrote also the certificate of the 



2^2 HTSTORV OF SOUTTTOT.f). 

ele6lion of the Trustees of vSouthold, as well 
as recorded It. He was the Clerk of Suffolk 
County for twenty-seven consecutive years 
from 1784 to 181 1, except the year 18 10. The 
Judge who attested the certificate of the elec- 
tion of the trustees was also a member of the 
Southold congregation. Major Joshua Gold- 
smith succeeded Freegift Wells in the office 
of Deacon on the death of the latter. 

It is the distin6live quality of a corporation 
that it never dies, and so the Board of Trust- 
ees have continued uninterruptedly for nearly 
an hundred years past to hold and use accord- 
ing to law and justice all the property of every 
kind that was in the possession and use of 
the Church, or had been purchased or given 
for its support or benefit, at the time when 
the law of the State required them to take 
the said property into their hands ; and so in 
due season the church edifice and parsonage 
were built on the land purchased from Her- 
bert for religious purposes. 

The increase of the people, or some other 
motive, caused them in 1699 to build a gallery 
in the west end of the Meeting House ; and 
the next year, they built one in the east end. 
See Town Records, Book D, pp. 9, 113. 



CHURCH BILLS- 233 

The bill for the latter is found in the Town 
Records thus in D. 5 : 

" The Town of Southold Dr. 
To Samuel Clarke for 
building ye gallere £1^ los 
Received of Samuel Clarke for boards 
and nails left of ye gallere ;/^oo-04 

Paid Jacob Conklin for banesters ^ 1-05-00 
Samuel Conklin for bringing 

ye banesters 0-06-09 
Joshua Wells for carting 
timber for ye gallere, nine shillings." 

Other expenses at this period are made 
known by these bills, namely : 

" Paid Seargeant John Corwin £^ for sweep- 
ing the Meeting House the year 1790." 
[Town Records, Book D, p. 9.] 

*' 1 701. Hannah Corwin, sweeping Meeting 
House and tending with ye Baptissm bason 
/2-OT-08." 

" 1702. The same." 

The year 1701 was marked by a transac- 
tion whose causes are not distinctly indicated. 
This was the Pastor's sale of his home to the 
people — the same home which they had con- 
veyed to him on condition of his settlement 
as their pastor twenty-seven years previously. 
Why he wished to sell, or they wished to pur- 
chase, at this time, can only be inferred from 



234 HTSTO'RY OF SOUTfrOT.D. 

the known fa6ls in the case.. He did not be- 
gin his ministry until he was forty-five years 
old, and had nearly reached the period of life 
in which many congregations at the present 
day are inclined to deem a minister too aged 
to continue in the pastoral work.. He had 
been the pastor nearly twenty-seven years in 
1 70 1, and had two years previously reached 
his three score and ten years. It was not to 
be expelled that he would be able to cultivate 
his farm and also perform his ministerial du- 
ties without embarrassment for a much longer 
period. It evidently seemed desirable to the 
people that he should be relieved from the 
care and labor and business of his farm, and 
continue his pastoral activity in his extreme 
old age free from this burden. They seem to 
have always most thoroughly considered his 
wants, esteemed his ministerial chara6ler, and 
appreciated his pastoral services. Though 
he had passed beyond the Psalmist's line of 
three score years and ten, they sustained him 
in his old age with all the more tenderness, 
and with the reverence due to the hoary head 
that is in the way of righteousness. They ac- 
cordingly bought his dwelling and the farm 
on which it stood, and determined that it 



rORNBl'R^'. 255 

should be perpetually the parsonage for him- 
self and his successors, and so it proved to be 
for nearly an hundred years. They raised 
the money to pay for it in the same wa}' that 
they assessed and colle6ted taxes for other 
public uses. 

The next year, they gave it the repairs 
which more than a quarter of a century's dur- 
ation and use had caused it to need. 

For some years from this date, it was nec- 
essary for the people of Southold to ad with 
caution. A new Governor reached New York 
in May, 1702. This was Edward Hyde, Lord 
Cornbury, eldest son of the Earl of Claren- 
don. He was a reckless adventurer, without 
principle or virtue, who had fled from his na- 
tive country to avoid his creditors. He was 
eager to gain wealth from his office, and cared 
nothing for justice. He received many in- 
strudions from his cousin, Queen Anne; but 
he was careful to follow those only that suited 
his own inclinations. He was dire6led among 
other things to tolerate all forms of religion, 
but to do his utmost to make the Church of 
England the Established Church ot his Prov- 
inces. In the Province of New York previous 
to 1699 the Church of England had but one 



236 HISTORY Op- SOtlTHOLD. 

minister except the chaplains of the military 
forces, and in the Province of New Jersey not 
one. Trinity Church in New York city was 
built in 1696-7, under the Governorship of 
Benjamin Fletcher, who arrived in New York 
in 1692, and w4io had two chief obje(?ts in 
view, namely : the promotion of his own per- 
sonal interests and especially the increase of 
his wealth, and secondly, the introduction of 
the English Church into the Province. In 
1693 he induced the Assembly to pass an a61 
providing for the building of a church in the 
city of New York, another in Richmond, two 
in Westchester, and two in Suffolk, and the 
settlement of a Protestant minister in each of 
those churches with a salary that might 
range from forty to an luuidred pounds — the 
whole expense to be paid by a tax laid on all 
the inhabitants. Provision was also made for 
the division of all the province into parishes. 
The Governor restri61:ed the w^ord Protestant 
and wrested it to mean Episcopal, and under 
this act the ])uilding of Trinity Church was 
begun in 1696 and was opened tbr public wor- 
ship February 6, 1697. ^^^^ minister was the 
Rev. William Vesey, w^ho had been an Inde- 
pendent minister in Queens county, and who 



TMF. EPISCOPAL CHUkCH. 237 

never had a very desirable reputation ; but 
he succeeded in 1703 in obtaining for this 
church a gift of the King's farm, which laid 
the foundation of the millions of wealth now 
belonging to Trinity church. He complained 
in 1699 of the discomforts of his new situa- 
tion. He did not find the favor with the Gov- 
ernors Bellamont and Hunter that he desired, 
and the former described him " as capable of 
any wickedness, base, unchristian ; his wick- 
edness is plain ; he wants honesty." He was 
not the only Episcopal minister in the Prov- 
ince when Lord Cornbury became Governor 
in 1702. There were also two others, Messrs 
Stuart and Barton. It was with these three 
Episcopal ministers only in the Province that 
the Governor determined and attempted to 
establish the Episcopal Church as the State 
Church. Soon after he came from England 
a terrible disease (probably yellow fever) was 
brought to New York from St. Thomas, West 
Indies. It spread rapidly, and proved fatal 
in nearly every case. The inhabitants of the 
city fled in every direction, and especially to 
Long Island. The Governor and his Council 
sought to escape the pestilence by fleeing to 
Jamaica. This .was a prosperous village of 



23 S HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Presbyterians. They had recently built a 
beautiful Church and had bought a house and 
glebe for their minister. There were more 
than one hundred families of them, " exem- 
plary for all Christian knowledge and good- 
ness." Their Church was worth six hundred 
pounds, aiid the manse and glebe twice as 
valuable. Indeed, the manse was the best 
house in the village. The minister was the 
Rev. John Hubbard, a native of Ipswich, 
Massachusetts, who crraduated at Harvard in 
1695. When he heard of the Governor's 
coming, he removed to a smaller dwelling, 
and offered the use of the parsonage to Lord 
Cornbury, who accepted the hospitality and 
repaid it in a very pecuHar way, namely: by 
turning the pastor and his flock out of the 
Church and handing it over to an Episcopal 
minister named Barton. Nor was this. all. 
For when the Governor returned to New 
York, he put the Episcopal minister into pos- 
session of the parsonage also, which was oc- 
cupied, thenceforth, as his residence ; and the 
Presbyterians had to carry on a law-suit for 
twenty years before they recovered the pos- 
session and use of their Church. Cornbury 
also ordered the Sheriff unlawfully to take the 



PRESBYTERIANS IMPRISONED. 239 

parsonage-land away from Mr. Hubbard ; to 
divide it into lots ; and to lease it for the ben- 
efit of the Episcopalians. This was done, 
and its owners deemed it too dangerous even 
to ask for the redress of their wrongs. This 
was the same Lord Cornbury who imprisoned 
for two months the Rev. Messrs. Hampton 
and Makemie, two Presbyterian ministers, for 
preaching in New York city and in Newtown. 
After living for years in the most shameless 
profligacy, he was at length deprived of his 
governorship by his kinswoman, Queen Anne. 
His creditors immediately seized him and 
kept him in prison in the City Hall on Wail 
Street, until the death of his father raised him 
from his cell to the peerage of Great Britain, 
and gave him a seat in the House of Lords. 

During this Governor's administration, the 
Rev. Mr. Hobart and his puritan people in 
Southold had to walk softly ; and we find 
nothing liere to chronicle in -those years. 

On the arrival of Governor Hunter, a 
Scotchman, affairs assumed a different aspedl: 
in New York city, and throughout the prov- 
ince. The people of Southold seem to have 
improved it to build a new meeting house ; 
but the new strufture, however satisfadtory in 



240 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

most respedls, did not please the people in 
the pitch of its roof. Hence they voted, in 
171 1, to take it down and build "a flatter 
roof upon the Meeting House ; " and in the 
following year, order was taken to seat the 
people in this house according to rank, digni- 
ty, official duties, and other considerations. 
[Town Records, Book D, page 11 7. J 

For more than three score and ten years 
now the people of the town had been spread- 
ing abroad, and especially eastward and west- 
ward, from the meeting house. Some of 
them were more than ten miles away from it 
in one dire6lion, and others were equally dis- 
tant in the opposite quarter. The minister 
was midway between eighty and ninety years 
of age. The people were increasing in num- 
ber and in wealth, as well as in the occupation 
of the soil in the parts of the town remote 
from the centre. Both in the east and the 
west, there began 'to be indications of a de- 
sire for public worship at points nearer than 
the site of the original settlement. The sup- 
ply of ministers was also increasing. In the 
creation of this supply, Yale was now effecft- 
ively supplementing the good work of Har- 
vard, In 1702, the only graduate of the Con- 



NEW CHURCHES IN SOUTHOLD. 24 1 

ne6licut College became a minister. The 
case was the same in 1703. Ten of the 
twelve graduates of the next three years be- 
came ministers, including Jonathan Dickinson, 
the first President of the College of New Jer- 
sey, while the class of 1709 yielded five cler- 
gymen, including Benjamin Woolsey, who 
eleven years later became the third pastor of 
Southold ; and all the graduates of the years 
1713, 1715, 1716, and 1717 became ministers. 
The class of 17 15 included Nathaniel Mather, 
who was afterwards settled at Aquebogue, 
within the limits of this town, and the class of 
1 71 7, Joseph Lamb, who became the pastor 
of Mattituck, which is also in the Town of 
Southold. 

In these circumstances, it is not surprising 
that James Reeve, about the year 17 15, gave 
half an acre at Mattituck for the site of a 
meeting house, and one acre and a half ad- 
joining for a burying ground ; and here the 
Rev. Joseph Lamb was ordained the minister 
soon after his graduation from Yale College 
in 1717. 

On the first day of January 17 18 — not in 
1 700, as Griffin says — David Youngs gave a 
deed for the site of a meeting hoyse at Orient, 

21 



242 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

'* Oyster Ponds/' on which an edifice was 
ere^ied in that and the following years. 
[Town Records, Book C, p. 67. Gardner's 
Historical Sketch of the Church, page 21.] 

It was in the midst of these changes that 
the Rev. Joshua Hobart closed his long life 
and ministry on the last day of the winter, 
February 28, 171 7. 

Ten years later, the Town voted that a 
tomb-stone be purchased to mark his grave 
and honor his name. In the pecuniary ac- 
counts of the Town, with the date of 06lober 
31, 1732, appears the bill against the Town 
for " the Building Mr. Hobart's tomb with 
stone lime & tendence i6s iid." [Town Rec- 
ords, Book '' Righteous & Holy."] 

The lime commonly used here, in that day, 
was obtained by burning the shells of oysters, 
scallops and other sea-fish ; and a chara6ler- 
istic specimen of the mortar made with it may 
now be seen beneath the tomb-stone of Col. 
John Youngs, the eldest and most eminent 
son of the first pastor and the friend and con- 
temporary of Mr. Hobart. 

These tomb-stones are heavy horizontal 
slabs of sandstone. The inscription on Col. 
Youngs's is still legible. That of the second 



SECOND pastor's TOMB STONE. 243 

pastor's was on a tablet which was set into the 
upper surface of the stone. The tradition is, 
that this tablet was destroyed by the British 
during the war of Independence. There are 
two branches of the tradition — one, that the 
inscription was cut upon a tablet of lead, 
which the British troops took for military 
uses ; the other, that the material was mar- 
ble, which was ruthlessly broken and destroy- 
ed ];y them. The former seems the more 
probable ; for there are, in the oldest part of 
the grave yard, several other tomb-stones 
from which the inscription-tablets are gone. 

After full twenty years of diligent search 
for a copy of the inscription on Mr. Hobart's 
tomb-stone, I was providentially able to ob- 
tain one which is well attested. It is partly 
in prose, and partly poetic. The latter part 
was written by Mather Byles, A. M., and it 
may be proper to say a word here in respe6l 
to the author. 

He was born in Boston, March 26, 1706, of 
good parentage, his mother being a descend- 
ant of John Cotton and Richard Mather. He 
was graduated at Harvard College in 1725, 
two years before Southold ordered the tomb- 
stone for Mr. Hobart and seven years before 



244 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

the Town paid for building the tomb. He 
became the first pastor of the HolHs Street 
Church, in Boston, when he was ordained 
Dec. 20, 1733. The College of Aberdeen, 
Scotland, made him D.D. in 1765. Early in 
his ministry, he became widely known as a 
poet, a wit and a preacher. Alexander Pope, 
Lord Lansdown and Rev. Dr. Isaac Watts 
were among his correspondents in England. 
The inscription was this : 

"the rev. JOSHUA HOBART, 

BORN AT HINGHAM JULY 1629, 

EXPIRED IN SOUTHOLD FEB. 28th 1 7 1 6. 

He was a faithful minister, a skillful physician, a gen- 
eral scholar, a courageous patriot, and to crown all an 
eminent Christian. 

Beneath the sacred honors of this tomb. 

In pensive silence and majestic gloom, 

The man of God conceals his reverend head 

Amidst the awful mansions of the dead. 

No more the statesman shall assert the laws 

And in the Senate plead his country's cause : 

In the sad Church no more the listening throng 

Gaze on his eyes and dwell upon his tongue : 

No more his healing hand shall health restore, 

Elude the grave and baffle death no more. 

In Eden's flowery vales his spirit roves 

Where streams of life roll through the immortal groves. 

Fixed in deep slumbers here the dust is given 

Till the last trumpet shakes the frame of heaven. 

Then new to life the waking saint shall rise, 



SECOND PASTORS WIFE. 245 

And gay in glory, glitter up the skies. 

With smiling joys and heavenly raptures crowned, 

Bid endless ages wheel their never ceasing round." 

His wife's grave is beside his own, and cov- 
ered with a monument in every respe6l sim- 
ilar, except that the inscription is cut into the 
stone itself. She died nineteen years earlier 
than his own death, the date of her decease 
being April 19, 1698, and her age fifty-six 
years. 

It has not been possible to trace their de- 
scendants. Irene married Daniel Way of 
Southold, but this family name here has long 
since disappeared. 



PART III. 

PERIOD OF THE MINISTRY OF THE 
REV. BENJAMIN WOOLSEY. 

I 7 20-I 73 6. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The third Pastor was the Rev. Benjamin 
Woolsey. Here again may be seen the inti- 
mate relation between this old Church and 
Town on the one hand and Yarmouth and its 
neighborhood in England on the other ; for 
the grandfather of our third Pastor was 
George Woolsey, born in Yarmouth, 06lober 
27, 1 6 10. The place of his birth is the most 
eastern borough of England. The peninsula 
on which Great Yarmouth is built is remarka- 
ble for its peculiar geological formation ; for 
it is the bed of a former estuary. The place 
is also note-worthy for its antiquities, its 
quay, and its fisheries. Its Church of Saint 
Nicholas [Santa Claus] was founded eight 
hundred years ago. Its quay extends for a 
mile north and south on the east or left bank 
of the Yare, and parallel to the shore of the 



250 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

sea, so that the streets of Great Yarmouth 
which run east and west stretch across the 
peninsula from the broad waters of the Yare 
on the west to the far broader waters of the 
North Sea on the east. 

George Woolsey was a son of the Rev. 
Benjamin Woolsey and a grandson of Thomas 
Woolsey of Yarmouth. It appears from the 
investigations of Charles B. Moore, Esq., that 
he had resided with his parents in the city of 
Rotterdam, in Holland, and that his father 
was for a time a minister in that city, where 
he had been preceded by another clergyman, 
previously of Yarmouth, the Rev. Dr. William 
Ames. This celebrated minister was born in 
Norfolk county, England, in 1576. He was 
educated in Christ's College at the University 
of Cambridge. His religious principles and 
life made him the obje6l of persecution and 
compelled him to leave the University. He 
left his native country also, and removed to 
the Hague, the capital of Holland. He be- 
came the Professor of Theology in the Uni- 
versity of Franeker in Friesland, and perform- 
ed the duties of his office satisfa61:orily for 
twelve years. He then removed to Rotter- 
dam, and became a pastor in that great com- 



REV. DR. AMES. 25 1 

mercial city, where he had very many EngHsh 
hearers, and Hved until his death in 1633. 
The Rev. Hugh Peters, afterwards of Salem, 
Massachusetts, and the Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
the founder of Hartford, Connedlicut, were 
some time his assistant ministers. He was 
an able and spirited controversial writer 
against Cardinal Bellarmine and others. His 
Medulla Theologice was famous in its day. 
He was a member of the celebrated Synod of 
Dordrecht, which held its memorable sessions 
in the year 16 18-9, and defined the faith of 
the Reformed Dutch Church on the five 
points of ele6lion, redemption, depravity, ir- 
resistible grace, and perseverence in the 
Christian life. In this Synod there were rep- 
resentatives of the English church and of other 
Reformed communions, and it settled the doc- 
trine and order of the Church in the Nether- 
lands as well as in the numerous and popu- 
lous colonies thereof. 

After the death of the Rev. Dr. Ames, his 
widow with his daughter and his two sons re- 
turned to Yarmouth, whence they sailed in 
May, 1637, on board the Mary Anne, for Sa- 
lem in New England. Mr. Moore holds that 
this vessel probably brought over at that time 



252 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

the family of the Rev. John Youngs, our first 
Pastor, and that it was with reference to the 
voyage of the Mary Anne that the Commis- 
sioners of Emiorration examined the Rev. 

o 

John Youngs, his wife Joan, and their six 
children and forbade his passage. 

It is very likely that the Rev. Mr. Youngs 
himself crossed over the North Sea to Hol- 
land and from that country came to America. 

It is believed that George Woolsey came 
over in a Dutch vessel with Dutch emigrants 
in 1623, during his thirteenth year, and went 
to Plymouth in New England. It is to be 
remembered, that the pilot or navigator of 
the Mayflower was a Hollander, or Dutchman, 
and that the Mayflower company desired and 
intended, when they left the harbor at the 
mouth of the Ply in England, to make their 
home in America near their Dutch friends on 
Manhattan Island. Most of them had been 
intimate with the Dutch in Holland, and were 
grateful for the prote6lion and freedom which 
had been granted to them in that country. 

George Woolsey became a resident of the 
Dutch metropolis at the mouth of the Hud- 
son, and a trader in partnership with Isaac 
Allerton, who had come to Plymouth in the 



GEORGE WOOLSEY. 253 

Mayflower three years earlier than himself. 
He was a witness before the Governor and 
Council on the 23d of July, 1647, ^^^ gave 
his testimony on a charge affe6ling the char- 
a(?ter and official condu6l of the chief financial 
officer of the colony. On the loth of August, 
1647, h^ bought of Thomas Robertson a 
house and plantation in Flushing, L. I. On 
the 9th of December, in the same year, he 
was married at the Dutch Church in New 
York to Rebekah Cornell, a sister of Sarah 
Cornell, whose first husband was Thomas 
Willett, formerly of Bristol, England, and 
whose second husband was Charles Bridges, 
of New York city. George and Rebekah 
(Cornell) Woolsey had a daughter Sarah, 
who was baptized at the Reformed Dutch 
Church, New York, August 7, 1650. Their 
son George, born 06lober 10, 1652, received 
baptism three days later, one of the sponsors 
being Elsje, i. e., Alice Newton, wife of Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant's celebrated military officer, 
Captain Bryan Newton, who became one of 
the patentees of the Town of Jamaica, Long 
Island, where George Woolsey, Jr., became a 
prominent citizen, and where in 1680 he made 

an arrangement with Captain and Mrs, New- 

22 



2 54 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ton to care for them in their old age and to 
own their land after their death. See Charles 
B. Moore's Bryan Newton in New York, G. 
and B. Record, July, 1876. 

In 1648, George Woolsey and three others 
were appointed fire-wardens of the city of 
New York, with large powers of inspe6lion 
and control. See Booth's New York, p. 133. 
He became the owner of land at Jamaica by 
deed from the Town, February 15, 1664. He 
was one of the Patentees, and, as one of its 
first settlers, this was probably the place of 
his residence for more than thirty years. He 
was chosen Town Clerk in 1673, and his hand 
writing is plainly legible in the Town Records. 
He made his will on the 2nd of November, 
1 69 1, and died August 17, 1698, being nearly 
eighty-eight years of age. The proof of his 
will was made on the 2 2d of February, 1699, 
and the record of it is in the Queens County 
Records, Vol. A, p. 132. He bequeathed to 
his eldest son, George, his land at Beaver Pond, 
to his son Thomas fifteen acres on the west 
of the home-lot of Anton Waters, to his son 
John thirty acres by the Little Plains, an out- 
fit to his daughter Mary on her marriage or 
when she attains the age of eighteen years^ 



NEW JERSEY WOOLSEYS. 255 

and the rest of his estate to his wife Rebekah; 
At her decease, the lands and tenements in 
her use to be equally divided to his three sons, 
and the goods and chattels to his three daugh- 
ters Sarah (Hallett), Rebekah (Wiggins) , and 
Mary Woolsey. When he died, his grandson 
Benjamin Woolsey, our third Pastor, was in 
his eleventh year. 

His son George Woolsey, Jr., became a 
prominent citizen of Jamaica. He was made 
Captain in 1696. His wife's name was Han- 
nah. They had two sons — George and Ben- 
jamin — named after their paternal ancestors. 

George Woolsey, the elder of these sons, 
was born in New York, 06lober 10, 1682, 
and removed in his early manhood, between 
1700 and 1 7 10, from Jamaica to Pennington, 
New Jersey, where he bought two hundred 
and eighteen acres of good land, which he 
made his homestead. He died before March 
II, 1762, when his will was proved. See the 
Rev. Dr. George Hale's History of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Pennington. His de- 
scendants have been eminent generally for 
their religious chara6ler and moral worth. 
His homestead has never ceased to be the 
home of his male descendants, and is now 



256 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

(1876) the homestead of his great-grand-son, 
George Woolsey, a Deacon of the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Pennington, who was for 
three years a senator of the State of New 
Jersey, and whose son, Theodore Freling- 
huysen Woolsey, with his wife and six chil- 
dren, lives on the homestead with his aged 
father. 

Benjamin, the second son of Captain George 
Woolsey, Jr., and his wife Hannah, was born 
at Jamaica, November 19, 1687. They sold 
to this son in 1722, while he was our third 
Pastor, the land at Beaver Pond, Jamaica, on 
which they were then living, for three hundred 
pounds sterling. 

After the removal of our pastor to Dosoris 
in 1736, his aged father lived with him, and 
died there, January 19, 1 740-1, where his 
tomb is to be found to this day. 

The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey was graduated 
at Yale College in the class of 1709, midway 
between the origin of the College and its re- 
moval from Saybrook to New Haven. His 
class numbered nine graduates, and in respe6l 
to social standing, which was the principle of 
arrangement in the Catalogue at that time, he 
held the central place in the class. Yale had 



REV. MR. WOOLSEV. 257 

graduated seven classes previous to the grad- 
uation of Mr. Woolsey's ; and according to 
the latest General Catalogue of the College, 
these seven classes numbered altogether 
twenty-two graduates ; of whom eighteen be- 
came ministers. The first sixteen classes of 
Yale numbered sixty-one graduates, and all of 
them became ministers except fourteen. The 
graduates of this College in those years be- 
came ministers in nearly as large a proportion 
as the graduates of the best Theological Sem- 
inaries do now. 

This shows the chara61;er of Mr. Woolsey's 
fellow students and associates In College. 
He had attained his twenty-second year when 
he was graduated, and five years later he was 
married to Abigail Taylor, a daughter of John 
Taylor of Oyster Bay, Long Island, and of 
Mary (Whitehead) Taylor. John Taylor died 
In 1735, and left to Mrs. Woolsey a valuable 
estate of several hundred acres near Glen 
Cove. 

Soon after his graduation at Yale College, 
Mr. Woolsey began the work of the ministry 
and preached in several places. One instance 
of his* preaching became famous. This occur- 
red while he was visiting his elder brother, 



258 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

George, in Hopewell, now Pennington, New 
Jersey, where, as we have seen, the Woolseys 
were, as they have been from the beginning 
and are now, among the most worthy, pious, 
and influential people. He preached in the 
Episcopal church in Hopewell, and his being 
allowed to do this was one of the charges of 
wrong doing brought in 171 2 against Gov- 
ernor Hunter by the Rev. Jacob Henderson, 
an Irishman, who had been sent to this coun- 
try in 1 7 10 by the Church of England Socie- 
ty for the propagation of the Gospel in For- 
eign Parts. The controversy between Gov- 
ernor Hunter and the Episcopal ministers who 
supported his administration in religious af- 
fairs on the one side, and on the other side 
the ministers of the same denomination who 
opposed his proceedings, was sharp and bit- 
ter, each flatly contradi61:ing the other's state- 
ments. See Documentary History of New 
York ; documents pertaining to the Colonial 
History of this State ; Webster's History of 
the Presbyterian Church, page 353 ; Sprague's 
Annals of the American Pulpit, Vol. 5, p. 34. 
But whatever the consequences of his minis- 
try to himself or to others, Mr. Woolsey did 
not cease to preach the gospel. On the con- 



PASTORS AUTOGRAPH. 259 

trary, he proclaimed the divine word when- 
ever he was providentially called to utter it 
as the minister of Jesus Christ. In this way 
it came to pass that he was installed the Pas- 
tor of the First Church of Southold in July, 
1720. 




Autograph of the Rev. iJenjamin Woolsey in 172T. 

Here he fulfilled the duties of his office for 
sixteen years. He had the satisfa6lion of see- 
ing the intelle6lual and spiritual life of the 
Church and Town flourish under his ministry. 

Among the fruits of this life was the pro- 
du6lion of several pious and aspiring young 
men who were an honor to their native place 
and a benefit to other parts of the country in 
which they lived during their later years. 

Abner Reeve, a son of Thomas Reeve, was 
born in Southold in 17 10. He acquired a 
liberal education. Having finished the course 
of studies in Yale College, he was graduated 
in the class of 1731, when he was twenty-one 
years of age. He studied theology three or 
four years, and was licensed in Southold to 



26b HISTORY OF SOUTH OLt). 

preach the gospel, in 1735. He settled in 
the same year at Nesaquake in Smith town. 
He was the first minister who ever resided in 
that town. His disposition was amiable and 
his scholarship excellent ; but his habits were 
somewhat eccentric, and the social customs of 
the times led him into the intemperate use of 
strong drink, so that he was for a time laid 
aside from the ministry, after he had served 
as a licensed preacher at Smithtown, Fire 
Place, and Huntington for ten or twelve years. 
He returned to his native place in Southold, 
and here, under the faithful ministry of our 
fifth pastor, the Rev. William Throop, he was 
restored to sobriety and the life of godliness. 
The people of Moriches and Ketchabonnach 
obtained his services, and on the sixth of No- 
vember, 1755, the Presbytery of Suffolk, in 
"the Western Meeting House," organized 
the church of Moriches and ordained and in- 
stalled him as its Pastor. At his request, the 
Rev. William Throop, of Southold, was invited 
to preach the sermon ; and accordingly Mr. 
Throop preached from this text, I. Cor 9: 27. 
" But I keep under my body, and bring it into 
subje61:ion: lest that by any means when I 



REV. ABNER REEVE. 26 1 

have preached to others, I myself should be a 
castaway." 

Mr. Reeve was the Pastor of Moriches for 
eight years. Having been dismissed in 1763, 
he settled in Blooming Grove, Orange Coun- 
ty, New York. He withdrew from the Pres- 
bytery of New York in 1770, and afterwards 
became the minister of Burlington, Vermont, 
where he remained until his death, in 1795, at 
the age of eighty-five years. 

The Rev. Ezra Reeve was the eldest son of 
the Rev. Abner Reeve, and was born in 1733, 
and honors the Town of Southold, the place 
of his birth. He prepared for College in his 
boyhood and having finished the regular 
course he was graduated at Yale in 1757, be- 
ing in the same class with the eminent Judge 
and United States Senator John Sloss Hobart 
and the famous Gov. Edmund Fanning, who 
was a Southold man. Mr. Reeve was ordain- 
ed and installed the first Pastor of Holland, 
Hampden county, Massachusetts, September 
13, 1765, the year that the Church was organ- 
ized. He fulfilled his ministry faithfully, and 
died there April 25, 18 18, aged eighty-five 
years. 

The Rev. Abner Reeve's wife was Mary 



2 62 HISTORY OF SOUTMOLD. 

Topping ; and one of their sons was named 
after her family ; but in his case, Tapping has 
become the estabhshed spdlhig. It was 
while his parents lived at Fire Place, in the 
Town of Brook Haven, that Tapping Reeve 
was born .in 06lober 1744. He prepared for 
College, studied in Princeton, and was grad- 
uated in 1763, the same year that his father 
was released from the pastoral care of Mo- 
riches. While he was in Princeton, he form- 
ed an acquanitance with the only daughter of 
the President of the College, the Rev. Aaron 
Burr, and in due season, he married her. 
She was a grand-daughter of Jonathan Ed- 
wards, the father-in-law and successor of Mr. 
Burr as President of the College of New Jer- 
sey, and her only brother was the third Vice 
President of the United States. 

Tapping Reeve settled in Litchfield, Con- 
necticut; founded the celebrated Law School 
of that place ; and became the Chief Justice 
of the State. He was the head of the School 
for nearly forty years, and taught a larger 
number of the most eminent lawyers in the 
United States than any man of his own gener- 
ation or of any previous age. On his death, 
Dec. 13, 1823, his pastor, the Rev. Dr. Ly- 



REV. SIMON HORTON. 263 

man Beecher, said of him : '* I have never 
known a man who loved so many persons 
and was hhnself beloved by so many." He 
was die first lawyer of prominence in diis 
country who labored to make a change in the 
laws controlling- the property of married 
women. 

Another of the boys who grew up under 
Mr. Woolsey's ministry was Simon Horton. 
His parents were Joshua Horton, Ensign, 
and Eliza or Elizabeth (Grover) Horton. 
His mother was a daughter of Simon Gro- 
ver, whose wife was Elizabeth, daughter of 
Thomas Moore. Joshua Horton, Ensign, 
was a son of Joshua Horton son of the orig- 
inal Barnabas. 

Simon Horton was born March 30, 171 1. 
According to the tradition of the family, both 
himself and his second cousin, the Rev. Aza- 
riah Horton, were born in the dwelling of 
their great-grandfather, the old Barnabas 
Horton house, which is still (1876) occupied, 
though more than two hundred and thirty 
years old."^ He was graduated at Yale in the 

*Torn down in 0(5lober and November, .1878. The 
new one on the old site is now (1878) owned and occu- 
pied by Mr. David P. Horton. 



264 * HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

same class with his townsman, Abner Reeve, 
in 1 73 1. He pursued his theological studies, 
most likely with his pastor, for a few years, 
and some time between September, 1734, and 
September, 1735, he was ordained by the 
Presbytery of East Jersey, and Installed as 
the first pastor of Connedllcut Farms, four or 
five miles from the city of Elizabeth, New 
Jersey. His parish covered a large extent of 
territory, and Included the present parish of 
Springfield, New Jersey. He belonged to 
the New Side In the Presbyterian church, as 
might be Inferred from his associations. He 
removed from Conne6lIcut Farms In 1746, 
and was succeeded there by Southold's fourth 
pastor, the Rev. James Davenport, while he 
himself was Installed as the successor of the 
Rev. Samuel Pomeroy In the pastoral office 
at Newtown, Long Island. 

Here he fulfilled the duties of his office 
until 1772, when he resigned, and thereafter 
resided with his son-in-law, Judge Benjamin 
Coe, of Newtown. During the later years of 
his life, he was sent by the Presbytery yearly 
to supply the East and West Houses on Stat- 
en Island. He died May, 8, 1786. He was 
twice married — first to Abigail Howell, who 



REV. AZARIAH HORTON. 265 

died May 5, 1752, and secondly, January 7, 
1762, to Elizabeth Fish. His only child was 
Phoebe, who became the wife of Judge Coe . 
Throughout the War of Independence, he was 
an earnest and a6live patriot, and was driven 
with his son-in-law from his home by the Brit- 
ish. They found a refuge in Warwick, Or- 
ange County, New York. 

The Newtown congregation was so thor- 
oughly scattered by the war, that only five of 
its communicants remained at the return of 
peace. The British and Tories had utterly 
ruined the Church building. 

The Rev. Simon Horton was a man of me- 
dium size, good chara6ler, devoted piety, and 
solemn deportment. 

His successor at Newtown in the pastoral 
office was the Rev. Nathan Woodhull, a native 
of Brook Haven, Long Island. 

A few years younger than Simon Horton, 
and born in the same old Barnabas Horton 
house, was Azariah Horton, a son of Jonathan, 
whose father was Jonathan, the youngest son 
and principal heir of Barnabas, succeeding 
him in the possession of the homestead. 
Azariah's mother, the wife of Jonathan Hor- 
ton, Jr., was Mary Tu thill. Her family was 
23 



266 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

one of the earliest in the Town, John Tuthill 
being the chief executive officer thereof in 
1642 by appointment or recognition of the 
General Court for the Jurisdidlion of the New 
Haven Colony, including the Town of South- 
old ; and the members of the Tuthill family, 
descendants of Henry Tuthill, are now more 
numerous, and together possess more taxable 
property, than those of any other family in the 
Town. 

Azariah Horton was born March 20, 17 15. 
His boyhood was bright and virtuous ; and 
having prepared for College, he entered Yale, 
and pursued the full course of studies. He 
was graduated in the class of 1735, being 
ranked in social standing second below Pres- 
ident Burr and sixth above the Rev. Dr. Bell- 
amy. He prepared himself after his gradua- 
tion more particularly for the ministry, and 
was ordained by the Presbytery of New York 
in 1 740. He received a call to settle in a de- 
sirable parish on Long Island ; but he declin- 
ed this call, in order to labor for the more 
destitute heathen, especially the Shinnecocks 
in the Town of Southampton ; and for nine 
years, from 1741 to 1750, he was a mission-. 
ary among the Indians of Long Island, 



REV. AZARIAH HORTON. 267 

There was in Edinburgh, Scotland, a " So- 
ciety for Propagating Christian Knowledge ; " 
and it was this Society that supported the 
Missionaries David and John Brainerd, as 
well as Azariah Horton, in their labors for the 
Indians. Here is an extra6l from Minutes of 
this Society : 

"Edinburgh, 2d November, 1749. 
''The Correspondents at New York had 
likewise sent hither journals of the Rev'd Mr. 
John Brainerd, from the ist May, 1748, to 7th 
September, 1749, and of Azariah Horton from 
the 26th August, 1 748, to the 9th April, 1749, 
as Missionary Ministers employed by this So- 
ciety for the conversion of the infidel Indian 
natives living upon the borders of the Provinces 
of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
bearing their diligence and success in their 
mission." See Rev. Dr. Thomas Brainerd's 
Life of the Rev. John Brainerd, pp. 157, 158. 

Some of Azariah Horton's Journals, thus 
kept for the Scotch Missionary Society that 
employed him, were printed, and quotations 
from them are found in Prime's History of 
Long Island and in Furman's Antiquities of 
Long Island. 

He went in 1742 to the Forks of the Dela- 
ware (Delaware and Lehigh rivers at Easton, 



26S HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Pa.), to prepare the Indians there for the 
ministry of Brainerd. Like his cousin Simon 
Horton, he was a New Side man in his sym- 
pathies and associations. 

In a letter written at Southampton, Sep- 
tember 14, 1 75 1, he speaks of the annoyance 
which *' The Separates " were causing him, 
and the same spirit causes annoyance in these 
days to the faithful, intelligent and worthy 
ministration of the gospel for the spiritual 
welfare of the Shinnecock tribe. 

When his work among the Indians, as a 
missionary to the heathen, became essentially 
accomplished, he withdrew from the field, and 
became the first Pastor of the Church of Mad- 
ison, New Jersey, in 1751, this church having 
been formed by taking a part of Hanover for 
the purpose in 1748. He faithfully served 
this church for twenty-five years, and then re- 
signed his charge in November, 1776. On 
the 27th of March in the next year, he died. 
The inscription on his tomb-stone in the old 
church yard is this : 

'' In memory of the Rev. Azariah Horton, 
for 25 years Pastor of this Church. Died 
March 27, 1777, aged 62 years." 

The volume of Barber and Howe's Histori- 



JUDGE THOMAS YOUNGS. 269 

cal Colledions of New Jersey, page zil^ gives 
this inscription. Some twenty years since, 
an unknown gentleman appeared in Madison 
and set up a more beautiful monument at the 
Rev. Azariah Morton's grave. Mr. Morton's 
only son died In Philadelphia. 

The Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., is 
one of the descendants of the Rev. Azariah 
Morton. See Morton Genealogy by George 
F. Morton, M.D., Philadelphia, 1876, p. 184. 

Thomas Youngs, another of the lads under 
Mr. Woolsey's ministry, was born here In 1 7 1 9. 
Maving prepared for College and pursued the 
course of studies in Yale, he was graduated 
in the class of 1741, a class eminent for the 
ability of Its members, containing Governor 
Livingston of New Jersey, Rev. Drs. Mans- 
field, Mopkins, Buell, Sproat, and Welles, with 
Rev. Messrs. Stephen Williams, David Brain- 
erd, Thomas Lewis, David Youngs, and other 
distinguished men. 

Thomas Youngs became the Judge of his 
native County, and a member of the State 
Legislature, in which he served his country 
from 1784 to 1786. Mis death occurred on 
the 19th of February, 1793. Me was a son 
of Judge Joshua Youngs, who was a son of 



'1*]0 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Zerubbabel, whose father was Col. John 
Youngs, the eldest son of the first Pastor. 

Thomas Youngs married Rhoda Budd, and 
made his home in that part of the Town 
which was then called Stirling, and near the 
present Stirling Creek. He owned about his 
house some five hundred acres of land, east 
of Greenport, and extending from Long Isl- 
and Sound to Gardiner's Bay. He held his 
land firmly, and his son Thomas, who became 
its possessor after the death of the Judge, fol- 
lowed his example. It is now the property of 
the Judge's grand-sons and their heirs, and 
of the Hon. David G. Floyd, and the heirs of 
the Hon. Frederick W. Lord, A.M., M.D. 

David Youngs, a kinsman of Judge Thomas 
Youngs, and born in the same Town and in 
the same year, 17 19, was a fellow student in 
the same class and received his degree from 
Yale at the same time. The Rev. Dr. Samu- 
el Hopkins, of Newport, Rhode Island, his 
College class-mate, commended him as excel- 
ling Brainerd and Buell in fervency of spirit 
and Christian zeal. He became the Pastor of 
Brook Haven. This Congregation, on the 
29th of May, 1742, besought the Presbytery 
of New Brunswick to ordain him, and the 



REV. DAVID YOUNGS. 2']X 

Presbytery granted the request, and ordained 
him on the 12th of 061ober, 1742. In 1746, 
the year after the formation of the Synod of 
New York, the Presbytery of New Brunswick 
gave him leave to join the Presbytery of New 
York on account of its being more convenient 
to him to be a member of the latter body. 
In May, 1749, he became a member of the 
Presbytery of Suffolk by vote and dire61ion 
of the Synod of New York. He died before 
May 27, 1752 ; for on this day the Presbytery 
of Suffolk made a record of his death as fol- 
lows : 

"Since our last session, [September 18, 
1 751], the Rev. Mr. David Youngs of Brook 
Haven departed this life." See Suffolk Pres- 
bytery's Records, p. 20. 

'' The Separates " had greatly weakened 
his congregation, and the consequences are 
visible within the bounds of the Setauket par- 
ish until this day. 

Migration from Southold westward has 
never ceased from the earliest years of our 
history till the present time. Every State of 
the Union most likely contains families or in- 
dividuals whose ancestors went forth from 
this swarming hive. The more westward 



272 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Towns of Long Island; Orange County, New 
York ; Elizabeth, New Jersey, and the region 
about it ; and several places in Morris County, 
New Jersey, received many inhabitants from 
this place during the first century of its his- 
tory. The Town of Chester, Morris County, 
New Jersey, for example, may be regarded as 
a colony from the East End of Long Island. 
The founders of the Presbyterian Church 
were mainly from the Hamptons. The Con- 
gregational Church shows a preponderance of 
Southolcl names. The Town of Chester was 
territorially formed from Roxbury in 1799. 
Barber and Howe say : 

*'The first permanent settlement in the 
Township was made by emigrants from Long 
Island, who founded the Presbyterian Church." 
See Historical Colle61;ions, page 379. 

The Rev. Frank A. Johnson, Pastor of the 
Congregational Church of Chester, in a Cen- 
tennial Historical Discourse, on the 2d of 
July, 1876, makes this quotation : 

'' The tra61: of land now constitutinof the 
Township of Chester was surveyed and run 
into lots in 1713 and 17 14, and began soon 
after to be settled with emigrants from South- 
old, Long Island." 

He adds : 



SOUTHOLD EMIGRANTS. 273 

'' It was in their hearts to do as their fathers 
had done : plant a church of the same faith and 
form of government as that in which they had 
been baptized and to which they owed so 
much." 

The Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of 
Chester, New Jersey, as well as the Congre- 
gational Pastor, has kindly given me informa- 
tion in respe6l to that Town and its settle- 
ment. 

The Presbyterian Pastor is the Rev. James 
F. Brewster, a descendant of the Rev. Na- 
thaniel Brewster, the first Pastor of Brook 
Haven, Long Island, who was a grandson of 
William Brewster, the Ruling Elder of the 
Pilgrims who came to Plymouth in the May- 
flower. 

In the Historical Sermon which the Rev. 
James F. Brewster preached in the Presby- 
terian Church of Chester, July 2, 1876, he 
said : 

" More than a century and a quarter ago a 
little band of Presbyterian pioneers from the 
eastern end of Lono- Island — a se6lion which 
has ever been a stronghold of Presbyterianism 
— brought among these hills the faith and 
worship of their lathers, and, like the ancient 
patriarch, they built their altar and called 



2 74 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

Upon their Gocl, on the spot which they had 
made their home, as soon as they were strong 
enough to unite themselves." " The founders 
of the church, with their children and their 
children's children, are sleeping in the dust, 
but their work, by God's blessing, still stands ; 
the glorious gospel still is proclaimed, through 
which, as we trust, hundreds upon hundreds 
have here obtained salvation, and from among 
these hills have ascended to Heaven." 

The church of Chester seems to have been 
divided about 1745, and a part of it to have 
accepted the sentiments of " the Separates," 
and to have maintained fellowship with this 
division of the Congregationalists on Long 
Island. The part that continued to cherish 
and maintain the views and principles of the 
churches of the standino- order in New Eng^- 
land and on Long Island, became Presby- 
terians ; and having called a pastor, the Pres- 
bytery of New Brunswick ordained and 
installed him in the autumn of 1752. 

There was an effort made, during the latter 
years of the Revolutionary war, to reunite the 
two churches. The effort continued indeed 
for six years, and throughout this period both 
churches had the same minister. But the 
attempt was not permanently successful. 



CHESTER, NEW JERSEY. 275 

About 1785, the separatical church was dis- 
solved ; but the members of it for the most 
part formed themselves not long afterwards 
into the present Congregational Church of 
Chester, which is deemed the oldest Congre- 
gational Church in New Jersey, and dates its 
organization 1747. It may be regarded as 
the legitimate successor of the Separatical 
Congregation, and the Presbyterian Church 
as the outgrowth of the Congregation that 
retained the fellowship of the New England 
churches of '' the Standing Order." 

The first pastor of the Congregational 
Church was the Rev. Samuel Swezey, who 
continued to fulfil the duties of the ofhce for 
twenty years until the Revolutionary war was 
about to sweep the country with its storms. 

The church edifice durinor the war became 
an hospital for sick and wounded soldiers of 
the National Army under Washington, whose 
headquarters were ten or twelve miles distant ; 
and public worship in it was discontinued 
throughout the years 1777 and 1778. In 
consequence of the deprivation of Christian 
instru(?tion and restraint, the moral and relig- 
ious habits of the people were greatly impaired. 

The Rev. James Youngs was ordained and 



276 HISTORY OF SOUTIIOLD. 

installed as the pastor of the new Congrega- 
tional Church. He bore an early Southold 
family name, like his predecessor, the Rev. 
Samuel Swezey. His ministry continued un- 
til his death in November, 1 790, at the early 
age of thirty-two years. His death was 
greatly lamented. 

The church, for more than ten years there- 
after, had only such irregular supplies as it 
was able on occasion to obtain from Long 
Island. 

But on the i6th of June, 1801, the Rev. 
Stephen Overton was ordained and installed 
as the Pastor. He was by birth or ancestry 
a Southolder. Under his ministry a new 
house of worship was built in 1803, the same 
year that the First Church of Southold ere6ted 
its present church building. The new edifice 
of Chester was forty by fifty feet in size, with 
front and side galleries, steeple and bell, 
somewhat smaller than the present Southold 
church edifice. 

Mr. Overton's ministry continued for twen- 
ty-seven years, and only two years and a half 
after his release from the pastorate, he died, 
on the 1 8th of September, 1830. 

Within the last fifty years, this church of 



NEW CHURCHES. 277 

Chester has had several pastors and suppHes. 
The Rev. James S. Evans, D.D., formerly 
pastor of MIddletown, Long Island, and sub- 
sequently of Setauket, Long Island, and more 
recently the Long Island Synod's Superin- 
tendent of Home Missions was the pastor 
from 1867 to 1 87 1, and while he labored with 
them in the gospel, the congregation built a 
parsonage. 

But the old Church and Town of Southold 
under Mr. Woolsey's ministry were not only 
planting their colonies abroad ; they were also 
forming new centres of growth and new con- 
gregations of worshippers at home. 

It was in the early part of 1718 that David 
Youngs gave a lot of land at Oysterponds 
(now Orient), for the purpose of having at 
some future time a Meeting House ere6ted 
upon it. See Town Records, Book C, p 6^, 
In 1725 the Meeting House was built, and it 
continued to be a place of public worship till 
1818. But there was no regular organized 
church in that part of the Town until many 
years after the building of the Meeting House. 

It was on the 6th''^ of December, 171 7, that 
the Rev. Joseph Lamb was ordained as the 

'''The Salmon Record says the 4th, which is an error. 
24 



278 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Minister of Mattituck by the Presbytery of 
Long Island, which met, organized, and began 
its existence at Southampton on the 17th of 
April, 1 71 7. The Mattituck Church was or- 
ganized in 1 7 15, two years before the ordina- 
tion of its Pastor ; and two years after his 
ordination it asked to be taken under the 
care of the Presbytery, and its request was 
granted. Its first Pastor received ordination 
the same year that he was graduated at Yale 
College. His class numbered five graduates ; 
all became ministers — another indication which 
shows how thoroughly Yale in its early years 
was a Theological Seminary. The year of his 
graduation was the year of the removal of the 
College from Saybrook to New Haven. Like 
the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, who was grad- 
uated eight years earlier, Mr. Lamb occupied 
the centre of the class in respe6t to social 
standing. 

He remained at Mattituck many years, and 
his wife died there in April, 1729. He re- 
moved to Baskingridge, Somerset County, 
New Jersey, previous to 1744, and on the 
24th of May in this year he became a mem- 
ber of the Presbytery of New Brunswick. 
Soon after his settlement in New Jersey, he 



LAMB, SOUTHARD. 279 

received into his congregation the Hon. Henry 
Southard, who followed him from Long Island 
to Baskingridge, which became the birthplace 
of the Hon. Samuel L. Southard, one of the 
most eminent and accomplished of the states- 
men of New Jersey, who in the Cabinet of the 
Nation successively performed the duties of 
the Secretary of the Navy, of the Treasury, 
and of War — who was successively Attorney 
General and Governor of his native State; 
and was repeatedly ele61:ed United States 
Senator, and President of the Senate. 

When Mr. Lamb became the Pastor of 
Baskingridge, the worshippers met from Sab- 
bath to Sabbath in a log-house, the first 
church edifice ever eredled in the place. But 
the people under his ministry put up in 1749 
a frame building far more commodious than 
the old one ; and this new stru61:ure contin- 
ued in use for ninety years until 1839, when 
it gave place to a stately brick edifice with a 
tall and graceful spire. Mr. Lamb, however, 
did not live to minister for many months in 
the frame building. He died within the year 
of its dedication, 1749. 

The formation of the Mattituck Church and 
the settlement of its Pastor and the prospeft- 



28o HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

ive formation of a Church at Orient made an 
essential change in the ecclesiastical condition 
of the people of the Town. The citizens were 
not unmindful of this change. 

Accordingly, in the Town Meeting of 1720, 
it was voted that three men be chosen to di- 
vide the parish lands proportionable, that each 
Minister may improve the same in proportion, 
according to the first purchase. Captain 
Reeve, Captain Booth and Benjamin Youngs 
were chosen. See Town Records, Book D, 
page 119. The Town Records do not indi- 
cate the method and effe6l of the division. 
But we may well suppose that there was as- 
signed to the Mattituck Minister such a part 
of the parish lands as the property of his par- 
ishioners bore to the whole property of all the 
people who made the purchase and the early 
improvement of the Town. This was to be 
determined in some way by the conditions of 
the first purchase of the soil of the Town by 
its founders. 

There seems to be in the Town Records 
no statement which marks the precise time 
when the Town ceased to colle61: and pay the 
minister's salary, or when the Town Meeting 
ceased to discipline church offenders. There 



CONVENIENCE-HOUSES. 2gl 

was doubtless a gradual preparation for the 
change whereby the church ceased to be a 
Town Church and became an Independent 
Church. It did not become a Congregational 
Church, in the present meaning of this term, 
until a later period of its history. 

No means of warming the church building 
in cold weather had yet been provided and 
used. Before the commencement of the pub- 
lic worship in the forenoon, as well as between 
the forenoon and the afternoon services, and 
sometimes also before the return home 
towards the close of the Sabbath, the people 
resorted to the private residences near the 
church edifice, or to ''The Public," in order 
to warm themselves in front of the large and 
open fire-places which a generous hospitality 
kept well filled with blazing wood whenever 
the temperature out of doors was low. But 
the inconvenience of this bountiful hospitality 
could not fail to be felt as a burden. Some 
better method was requisite to enable those 
who needed the use of food and of fire to 
supply their wants at their own expense. It 
was therefore voted by the Town Meeting to 
allow Isaac Conkling to build a house for 
convenience on the Lord's Day on the Town 



282 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

lot. This was one of the reforms accomplish- 
ed in the early part of the Rev. Mr. Woolsey's 
pastorate ; for this permission to build on the 
Town lot a convenience-house was granted in 
1722. See Town Records, Book D, page 
119. These convenience-houses became in 
later days comparatively numerous around 
the church buildinof. 

During the Rev. Mr. Woolsey's ministry 
the original church building ceased to be 
needed and used for the purpose to which it 
had been converted many years earlier ; and 
hence it was, that in 1727 the Town Meeting 
voted to sell the Prison House. 

The edifice for public worship had now 
ceased to be also a fortification, and subse- 
quently a jail, and the expense of the public 
worship was soon to be no more a tax as- 
sessed, colle6led and paid by the Town. 

The County Court had been held once a 
year in Southold and once a year in South- 
ampton for some forty years from the forma- 
tion of the county in 1683 5 but about 1727 a 
court house, or county hall, was built at Riv- 
erhead, which was formerly in Southold, and 
the court met in the new building for the first 
time, March 27, 1729. 



PART IV. 

PERIOD AFTER THE MINISTRY OF 
THE REV. BENJAMIN WOOLSEY. 

1 736-1 740. 



CHAPTER VII. 

In 1736, the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey re- 
moved from the Southold parsonage to the 
estate of his wife, in Oyster Bay township, 
Queens county, on the shore of Long Island 
Sound. It is a place of exceeding beauty. 
The gentle hills and slopes ; the quiet valleys 
of no great extent ; the fertile fields, rich with 
growing grain, or tinted with flowers of vari- 
ous hues, or enameled with luxuriant grasses ; 
the magnificent trees, scattered here and 
there, or forming clumps of woods, or even 
considerable forests ; and the bright, smooth 
lakes and bays, with the larger spaces of wa- 
ter visible on the Sound, all unite to present 
charming prospe6ls in every dire6lion. Mr. 
Woolsey called the place Dos ttxoris, (the 
wife's dower), and by this name, contra6led 
into Dosoris, it has ever since been known. 



286 PilSTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

It is nearly two miles north of the village 
of Glen Cove, and immediately south of Mat- 
inecock Point on Long Island Sound. The 
original tra6l contained one thousand acres. 
It was bought of the Matinecock Indians by 
Robert Williams, who sold it to Lewis Morris, 
of the Island of Barbados, a brother of Rich- 
ard Morris, the first owner of Morrisania, 
Westchester County, New York. Morris sold 
it, August lo, 1693, for ^390, to Daniel 
Whitehead, of Oyster Bay, who conveyed it 
for the same price to his son-in-law, John Tay- 
lor, of Oyster Bay. Mr. Taylor bequeathed it 
to his only daughter, Abigail, whose husband 
named it in her honor, and she was well wor- 
thy of his supreme appreciation. He lived 
there at the head of a most generous and hos- 
pitable family for the last and best twenty 
years of his life, from 1736 to 1756. At his 
death, he devised three-fifths of it to his son. 
Colonel Melan6lhon Taylor Woolsey, and 
two-fifths to his son, Benjamin Woolsey, Jr. 
Nathaniel Coles bought the wliole estate in 
1760, paying ;^4,ooo for the larger share and 
^3,600 for the smaller. 

Mr. Woolsey was in his thirty-third year 
when he settled in Southold, and in his forty- 



REV. BENJAMIN WOOLSEY. 287 

ninth when he removed to Dosoris. For the 
next twenty years he ministered the gospel 
at his own expense in various parishes. He 
often preached in his own house, giving a 
dinner also to the worshippers who came 
from distant places. During a part of these 
twenty years he supplied Hempstead on the 
Sabbath. His gratuitous services were abund- 
ant not only in preaching on the Lord's Day, 
but also in ministering to the sick and in con- 
du6ling the solemnities at the burial of the 
dead. 

His devotion to his sacreci duties is illus- 
trated by the incident which the Rev. Dr. 
Prime relates in the History of Long Lsland, 
page 282, to attest the punctuality of this 
good man to his engagements, and his un- 
willingness to disappoint the expectations of 
the congregation. During his ministry at 
Hempstead, he was bereaved of a son, whose 
death took place on a Saturday. Being una- 
ble to procure any person to supply his place 
in the Hempstead pulpit, he deemed it to be 
his heavy duty to leave his affli6led family on 
the Sabbath, in order to fulfil his engage- 
ments. He did so, and performed his usual 
services for the Hempstead congregation, 



288 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

The Rev. Benjamin Woolsey died on the 
15th of August, 1756. A few days later there 
appeared in "The Mercury " of New York, 
edited by Hugh Gaine, a tribute to his worth 
in which it was said, that "his intelle6lual 
powers were much above the common level, 
and were improvedby a liberal education: His 
universal acquaintance with sacred literature 
rendered his public performances peculiarly 
edifying and instruftive. His sentiments 
were just, noble and proper ; his reasoning 
was clear and conclusive, and his pulpit elo- 
quence manly, nervous and strong. The zeal 
and pathos that animated his discourses added 
peculiar grace and dignity to his address, and, 
while it engaged the attention of his hearers, 
discovered the sincere piety and fervent de- 
votion that warmed and governed his own 
heart. He loved good men of every profes- 
sion, and owned and admired sincere piety, 
under whatever form or denomination it ap- 
peared. Justice, charity and condescension, 
hospitality and public spirit, were virtues to 
which he paid the most sacred regard. In the 
discharofe of the various duties which constitute 
the tender and affectionate husband, kind pa- 
rent, the mild and gentle master, the obliging 



DOSORIS. 289 

neighbor, the sincere, faithful and unshaken 
friend, he had few equals and no superiors." 

He was buried at Dosoris, in the family 
cemetery, where fifteen years earlier he had 
buried his venerable father. 

It was a fair, bright, lovely morning on the 
twenty-second day of May, 1872, when I vis- 
ited Dosoris for the purpose of seeing the 
home of his later years and the place of his 
burial. During the previous night I had en- 
joyed by invitation the hospitality of the Rev. 
Benjamin L. Swan and his charming family, 
in the parsonage of the Presbyterian Church 
of Oyster Bay. He now gave me a seat in 
his carriage and became my guide to the spot 
which I desired to see. The drive from Oys- 
ter Bay to Dosoris, amid the exuberant life of 
the spring-time, with the air full of the fra- 
grance of early flowers and vocal with the 
songs of rejoicing birds, is exceedingly de- 
lightful, especially in the company of a gen- 
tleman overflowing with courtesy, kindness, 
congeniality of taste and spirit, and great in- 
telligence. So was my generous host. This 
made the day memorable. There is on the 
way an unceasing succession of various and 
attra6live scenes of natural beauty — hills, 
25 



290 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

vales, fields, forests and streams, lakes and 
bays, with here and there the wider prospe6ts 
of water on Long Island Sound, bearing upon 
its peaceful bosom the shining sails of pleas- 
ure and of commerce ; and on the right hand 
and the left many tasteful residences and cul- 
tivated grounds, crowning the hills, basking 
on the slopes, and nestling in the valleys, 
give animation and human interest to the 
views. The heavens also, during all that day, 
were in harmony with the earth. The great- 
er part of the sky was a perfeft blue ; but 
some spaces were flecked with clouds of ethe- 
real forms and soft and gentle tones and hues. 
The light breeze gave them wings, and their 
graceful movements imparted, on this glori- 
ous day of spring-time, the charm of life and 
activity to the ever-changing aspe6ls of both 
earth and heaven. So many forms of beauty 
can at once be rarely seen. 

Dosoris was then owned and occupied by 
Mr. George James Price. This gentleman 
was that day absent from his home ; but every 
kind attention was shown by his family, and 
especially by his father-in-law, Mr. Martin E. 
Thompson, a very intelligent and a6live octo- 
genarian, the architeft of the former Mer- 



REV. MR. WOOLSEYS DWELLING. 29 1 

chants' Exchange of New York City and other 
handsome building's which adorned the me- 
tropoHs of the new world in the earlier stages 
of its wonderful life and growth in business, 
wealth, population and greatness. Mr. Thomp- 
son holds, with the utmost confidence, that 
notwithstanding the great changes made in 
the dwelling in 1842, the west end of the 
present large double two story-house, with a 
wide hall from south to north through the 
centre, must be, from the style, charadler and 
age of the architecture, and of the various 
carved-wood adornments, the very dwelling, 
in part at least, which was the home of the 
Rev. Benjamin Woolsey during the last twen- 
ty years of this good Minister's life. It was 
easy and grateful to yield one's inind and 
heart to the benign influence of the hallowed 
associations of the place. 

The cemetery made sacred by the graves 
of many members of the family is in a grove 
of locusts trees on a knoll northeast of the 
residence. The land makes on the knoll, and 
the lower lines of many of the inscriptions 
are now some inches below the surface of the 
soil. Under the intelligent direction of Mr. 



^92 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Thompson,'^ we read not a few of these In- 
scriptions with hving- interest. The following 
is the inscription at the head of the most at- 
tra6live grave : 

SACRED TO THE MEMORY 

OF THE REv'd. MR. BENJAMIN VVOOLSEY 

WHO 

in the Vnited Character of the Gentleman, the Christian, the Divine 

Shone with distinguish'd Lustre 

and adorn'd every Station of public and private Life 

w^ith Dignity and Vsefulness. 

Early devoted to the work of the Gospel Ministry, 

Endow'd with the Gifts of Nature and Grace, 

He employ 'd his Superior Talents 

In the service of his Divine Master 

With Fidelity and Zeal. 

After a shineing Course of Disinterested Labours 

To promote the Cause of True Religion 

He exchang'd the Ministry of the Church Militant on Earth 

For the Reward of the Church Triumphant in Heaven 

August 15th AD 1756 .'E 69, 

An excellent and remarkably complete ge- 
nealogy of the descendants of the Rev. Ben- 
jamin Woolsey, by Benjamin W. Dwight, Ph. 
D., one of his posterity, was published in the 
New York Genealogical and Biographical 
Record. See the fourth and fifth volumes, 
July 1873 — July 1874. This publication is 

*This accomplished and venerable gentleman died at 
Dosoris, July 24, 1877, in the ninety-first year of his 
age. See New York Weekly Evening Post, August i, 
1877. 



WOOLSEYS. 293 

the authority for many of the statements in 
the following notices of some of his descend- 
ants. Only here and there in this country 
has lived a man whose descendants have been 
conne6led by blood and marriage with so 
many persons of great worth and distin6lion. 
He had two sons and four daughters who 
grew up and married. His eldest son, Me- 
lancthon Taylor Woolsey, born June 8, 171 7, 
married Rebekah Lloyd, and his eldest daugh- 
ter, second of these children, Sarali Woolsey, 
born a year or two years before his settle- 
ment in Southold, married John Lloyd. 
These Lloyds were children of Henry and Re- 
bekah (Nelson) Lloyd, and their father had 
the ownership and occupancy of Lloyd's Neck, 
about three thousand acres between Cold 
Spring Harbor and Huntington Harbor, pat- 
ented by Governor Dongan in 1685 with the 
rights and privileges of a manor named 
Queen's Village. Henry Lloyd was a son of 
James Lloyd, of Boston, and his wife Greselda 
Sylvester, of Shelter Island, whose lover, Lati- 
mer Sampson, gave her by his will one half 
of this tra6l of three thousand acres. After 
her marriage to James Lloyd, her husband 
bought the other half. After his death, his 
son Henry became the owner of the whole of 



294 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

the peninsula and made it his home, in 171 1. 
It remains in the ownership and possession 
of his descendants. The following letter of 
Henry Lloyd, it has been said, discloses the 
chara61er both of persons and of times. 

"Lloyd's Manor, 061. 10, 1741. 

*' Sir : — As my son John has sometime made 
suit to your daughter, Miss Sarah, I conclude 
it is with your and Mrs. Woolsey's approbation ; 
and, at his request, I hereby signify mine — 
hoping if they come together, it may be to 
their mutual happiness and with the good 
likine of all concerned. His circumstances 
beine such as to enable him to live comforta- 
bly without any immediate dependence on 
me, I think little need be said on that head, 
only thus far — as he is m.y son and has much 
of my affe61:ion, I have, in the disposition of 
what estate I possess, considered him as such, 
without being over-concerned to make an el- 
der son to the disinheriting of the younger 
children. And I shall trust that Mrs. Wool- 
sey and you will provide for Miss Sarah, as 
your daughter. 

I pray our best regards may be acceptable 
to yourself and lady — not forgetting your 
young lady. 

I am, sir, your very humble servant, 

H. Lloyd. 

To the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey, 

Dosoris, Long Island." 



M. T. WOOLS ey: 295 

Melan6lhon Taylor Woolsey entered the 
army during the war against the French and 
Indians, had the rank of Colonel in the cam- 
paign of 1758, and died in the military service 
of his country at Crown Point, New York, 
September 28, 1758, in his forty-second year. 
He and his daughters Abigail, Elizabeth and 
Mary were buried at Dosoris. His daughter 
Rebekah, born August 22, 1755, married, 
06lober 10, 1782, James Hillhouse of New 
Haven, whose father was Judge William Hill- 
house and whose mother, Sarah, was a sister 
of the first Governor Griswold of Connecti- 
cut. His grandfather was the Rev. James 
Hillhouse, whose wife was a granddaughter 
of the Rev. James Fitch, of Saybrook, and 
Priscilla, daughter of Capt. John Mason, the 
hero of the Pequot war. 

Rebekah Woolsey's husband was graduated 
at Yale in 1773, a member of the State Leg- 
islature, Treasurer of Yale College fifty years, 
from 1782 to 1832, member of the U. S. 
House of Representatives six years, from 
1790 to 1796, and thereafter U. S. Senator 
fourteen years, until 1810. He planted the 
elms which have given to New Haven the 
name of "The Elm City." His first wife was 



296 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Sarah Lloyd, daughter of John Lloyd and 
Sarah Woolsey. She was born in 1753. The 
husband of these two descendants of our third 
pastor — being cousins — died December 29, 
1832, aged 78 years. Probably no other man 
has ever done as much for the beauty and 
prosperity of New Haven as he did. Piis 
wife Rebekah died December 30, 1813. 

Among the Flillhouse descendants of our 
third pastor were James A. Hillhouse, author 
of "Percy's Masque,'' "Hadad," and other vol- 
umes ; and Rebekah Woolsey Hillhouse, first 
wife of the Rev. Nathaniel Hewit, D. D., and 
mother of the Rev. Nathaniel Augustus Hew- 
it, D. D., an el(K]uent and celebrated preach- 
er of the order of Pau lists in the Roman Cath- 
olic Church. 

Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey, son of Col. 
Melancthon Taylor Woolsey and Rebekah 
Lloyd, was born at Queen's Village, now 
Lloyd's Neck, May 8, 1758. He became an 
officer of the Revolutionary army as an aid to 
Governor George CUnton. During the war, 
on March 23, 1779, he married Alida, daugh- 
ter ot Henry Livingston, of Poughkeepsie, 
whose wife- Susan was a daughter of John 
Conklin. Alida Livingston was a sister of the 



M. L. WOOLSEY. 297 

Rev. John H. Livlng-ston, D. D., who was 
the first Professor of Divinity of the Reform- 
ed Dutch Church and opened their first reo-- 
ular Theological Seminary in the United 
States, in 1795. This Institution of sacred 
learning began its beneficent work at Bedford, 
Long Island. In 1807 his Professorship was 
united to Rutgers College at New Brunswick, 
New Jersey, and he was continued in his ofihce 
of Professor of Theology and also chosen to 
be the President of the College. His sister 
Alida, the wife of Gen. Woolsey, was the 
granddaughter of Gilbert Livingston, a 
grandson of the Rev. John Livingston, an 
energetic Minister of the gospel, who for the 
purity and excellence of his preaching was 
driven by the persecutions of the prelatical 
party from Scotland to Holland in 1663, and 
whose son Robert came to New York about 
1675 ^^^ in 1686 received from Gov. Donean 
the title to a large tra61: of land, including a 
great part of the present counties of Dutch- 
ess and Columbia, still known as Livingston 
Manor; for in 1715 George I. erefted the 
manor and lordship of Livingston with the 
privilege of holding a court leet and a court 
baron, and with the right of advowson to all 



298 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

the churches within its boundaries. Gen. 
Woolsey retired from the army in 1780, but 
afterwards became a Major General of the 
State miHtia. He made his home at Cumber- 
land Head, near Plattsburgh, was for many 
years the Colle6lor of the customs for the 
Plattsbureh Distri6l, and also the Clerk of 
Clinton county. He died at Trenton, New 
York, June 29, 18 19. His widow died at Os- 
wego, July 12, 1843, aged 85 years. 

Melan61:hon Taylor Woolsey, the first-born 
of their eight children, six of whom grew up 
and married, was born June 5, 1780. He en- 
tered the Navy of the United States in 1800, 
fought under Com. Decatur against Tripoli, 
and against England under Com. Chauncey in 
the war of 18 12. He commanded the U. S. 
force at Oswego when the British were gal- 
lantly repulsed at that point. He was after- 
wards transferred to the larger field of the 
ocean service and commanded at the West 
India Station, Pensacola, Fla., and subsequent- 
ly commanded the Brazilian Squadron. He 
married, Nov. 3, 18 17, Susan Cornelia Tread- 
well, daughter of James Treadwell, of New 
York. He died at his home in Utica, New 
York, May 19, 1838. She died at Stamford, 



BENJAMIN WOOLSEY, JR. 299 

Connedlicut, March 13, 1863, in her sixty- 
seventh year. They had seven children, in- 
cluding Capt. Melan6lhon Brooks Woolsey, of 
the U. S. Navy, and Quartermaster Richard 
Lansing Woolsey, of the U. S. Army, as well 
as Alida Livingston Woolsey, wife of the 
Rev. Isaac Pierson Stryker, of New York 
City, and Mary Elizabeth Woolsey, wife of the 
Rev. Frank Windsor Braithwaite, of Stamford, 
Conne61:icut. 

Our third pastor's second son, Benjamin, 
was born Feb. 12, 1720, the year of his set- 
tlement in Southold. This son was graduated 
at Yale in 1744, second in his class of fifteen, 
and next above the celebrated William Sam- 
uel Johnson, Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Conne6licut, U. S. Senator, and President of 
Columbia College, New York City. Benja- 
min Woolsey, Jr., succeeded his father in the 
possession and occupancy of Dosoris, and 
was a magistrate of the colony for many years 
previous to his death, September 9, 1771. 
He married first Esther Lsaacs, daughter of 
Ralph Isaacs, a merchant of Norwalk, Conn., 
and Mary Rumsey, daughter of Benjamin 
Rumsey, of Fairfield, Conn. Esther Isaacs 
Woolsey died March 29, 1756, aged twenty- 



300 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

five years, about seven years after her mar- 
riage. Mr. Woolsey married a second wife, 
Ann Muirson, dauo^hter of Dr. Georee Muir- 
son of Setauket and Anna Smith, daughter 
of Judge Henry Smith, eldest son of WilHam 
Smith, Governor of Tangiers, Chief Justice of 
New York, President of the Council and ail- 
ing Governor of the Colony. Benjamin 
Woolsey, Jr., had three children by his first 
wife, namely, Sarah, who married Moses Rog- 
ers, one of three brothers, each of whom 
founded a great mercantile house that con- 
tinued forty years in New York, and two of 
whose sisters were wives of eminent and 
wealthy merchants in that city. Moses Rog- 
ers was Governor of the New York Hospital, 
Direftor of the U. S. Bank, Treasurer of the 
City Dispensary, Vestryman of Trinity Church, 
and a6live in the Benevolent Societies of the 
city. Their daughter Sarah Elizabeth Rogers 
married the Hon. Samuel Miles Hopkins, 
Member of the U. S. Congress, and founder 
of the village of Moscow, New York, whose 
children include William Rogers Hopkins, 
Professor of Chemistry in the U. S. Naval 
Academy at Annapolis, Maryland ; and the Rev. 
S. M. Hopkins, D. D., who was graduated at 



ROGERS, HOPKINS. 3OI 

Amherst College in 1832, and at Auburn 
Theological Seminary in 1836, Pastor of the 
Presbyterian churches of Corning and of Fre- 
donia, New York, and since 1847 Hyde Pro- 
fessor of Ecclesiastical History and Church 
Polity in Auburn Theological Seminary. 
One of his sons is the Rev. Abel Grosvenor 
Hopkins, who was graduated at Hamilton 
College in 1866 and at Auburn Theological 
Seminary in 1869, and is the Professor of the 
Latin Language and Literature in Hamilton 
College. Benjamin Woolsey Rogers, son of 
Moses and Sarah Woolsey Rogers, was a 
large importer of hardware in New York, 
thirty-eight years a Governor of the New 
York Hospital, and one of the founders of 
the Bloomingdale Asylum. His daughter 
Sarah married William P. Van Rensselaer, 
son of Stephen Van Rensselaer of Albany, 
the Patroon. His son Benjamin Woolsey 
married a daughter of Dr. Richard Kissam 
Hoffman, a celebrated surgeon of New York 
City, and their son Hoffman married a daugh- 
ter of the Hon. John Ferdon, of Piermont, 
New York. Another son of Moses and Sarah 
Woolsey Rogers, Archibald Rogers, married 

a daughter of Judge Nathaniel Pendleton, an 
26 



302 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

intimate friend of Alexander Hamilton and 
his second in the fatal duel with Aaron Burr. 
Archibald Rogers's son Edmund Pendleton 
Rogers is the proprietor of the '' Quintard 
Iron Works " in New York, and his daughter 
Susan Bard Rogers is the wife of Herman, 
son of John T. Livingston, who owns a line 
of steamers hailing from New York. 

Benjamin, son of Benjamin and Esther 
Isaacs Woolsey, died in his fifth year. 

Their daughter Mary married the Rev. 
Timothy Dwight, D. D., President of Yale 
College. She died 06lober 5, 1845, aged 
ninety-one years. President Dwight was a 
son of Major Timothy Dwight and Mary, 
daughter of the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. 
D., President of the College of New Jersey. 
He was born May 14, 1752, and died January 
II, 18 1 7. Among their very many descend- 
ants are the Rev. Edward Strong Dwight, 
Pastor of Hadley, Massachusetts ; Benjamin 
Woolsey Dwight, M. D., Treasurer of Ham- 
ilton College, and his celebrated sons, Ben- 
jamin Woodbridge Dwight, Ph. D., who was 
graduated at Hamilton College in 1835, the 
distinguished teacher, author and genealogist, 
and Theodore William Dwight, LL. D., who 



DWIGHTS. 303 

was graduated at Hamilton College in 1840, 
the learned and eloquent Professor in the 
Law Department of Columbia College, New 
York city ; the Rev. Timothy D wight, D. D., 
who was graduated at Yale in 1849, ^^e Pro- 
fessor of Greek Exegesis in the Theological 
Department of Yale College and one of the 
Revisers of the New Testament ; the Rev. 
Sereno Edwards Dwight, D, D., who was grad- 
uated at Yale in 1803, married in 181 1, Susan 
Edwards, daughter of Judge David Daggett, 
of New Haven, and was President of Hamil- 
ton College ; the Rev. William Theodore 
Dwight, D. D., who was graduated at Yale 
in 1 8 13, and was for thirty-two years pastor 
of the Third Congregational Church of Port- 
land, Maine ; Henry Edwin Dwight, M. D., 
who was graduated at Yale in 1852, a promi- 
nent physician of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Thomas 
Bradford Dwight, who was graduated at Yale 
in 1859, a lawyer of Philadelphia, Pa. 

Our third pastor's son Benjamin had seven 
children by his second wife. Of these children, 
Esther, born at Dosoris, December i, 1759, 
married Capt. Palmer of the British army 
and died at Raphoe, Ireland, March 15, 1807. 
William Walton Woolsey, son of Benjamin 



304 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Woolsey, Jr., and his second wife, Ann Mulr- 
son, was born September 17, 1766, and mar- 
ried April 2, 1792, Elizabeth Dwight, sister 
of President Dwight of Yale College, whose 
wife, Mary Woolsey, was a half sister of Wil- 
liam Walton Woolsey. He was a prosperous 
merchant of New Haven, Conne6licut, and 
had the charge of many trusts and filled many 
public offices. He had seven children, and 
his posterity include Mary Anne Woolsey, 
who married Jared Scarborough, a graduate 
of Yale and a merchant of Hartford, Connect- 
icut, whose son William Woolsey Scarbor- 
ough is a merchant of Cincinnati and Presi- 
dent of the Bank of the Ohio Valley. Jared 
Scarborough died in 18 16 and his widow 
married for a second husband the Hon. 
George Hoadley, who was graduated at Yale, 
a lawyer of New Haven, Mayor of the City 
and President of the Eagle Bank. When he 
was nearly fifty years of age he became in 
1830 a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, and be- 
came the Mayor thereof. He died there in 
1^57' aged 75 years. Their daughter, Mary 
Ann Hoadley, married Thomas Fuller Pome- 
roy, a graduate of Union College, and a phy- 
sician of Detroit, Michigan. Another daugh- 



HOADLEY. 305 

ter, Elizabeth Dwight Hoadley, married the 
Hon. Joshua Hall Bates, a graduate of West 
Point, Lieutenant in the U. S. Army in the 
Florida war, and Brigadier General from April 
to August, 1 86 1, in the war against the Rebel- 
lion. Their son George Hoadley was graduated 
at the Western Reserve College in 1844, a law- 
yer in Cincinnati, Ohio, twice Judge of the 
Supreme Court of Hamilton County, and 
since 1864 Professor of Commercial Law in 
the Cincinnati Law School. 

Elizabeth Woolsey, daughter of W. W. 
Woolsey and Elizabeth Dwight, married 
Francis Bayard Winthrop, Jr., a graduate of 
Yale and a lawyer of New Haven, Ct. Their 
son, Major Theodore Winthrop, was gradua- 
ted at Yale, an author, an officer in the late 
war, and killed at Big Bethel, Va., June 10, 
1 86 1. Their son. Major William Woolsey 
Winthrop, was graduated at Yale, a lawyer, 
and Assistant to Judge Advocate Holt in the 
late war. Their daughter, Sarah Chauncey 
Winthrop, married in 1861 Theodore Weston, 
a graduate of Yale, a civil engineer in New 
York, employed on the Croton Water Works. 

John Mumford Woolsey, son of W. W. 
\\'oolsey and Elizabeth Dwight, was gradua- 



3o6 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

ted at Yale in 1813, married a daughter of 
Dr. John Andrews of WalHngford, Conne6li- 
cut, and was a hardware merchant in New 
York, and subsequently a capitalist in Cleve- 
land, Ohio. He died at New Haven, Con- 
necticut, July II, 1870, aged seventy-four 
years, and was buried at Dosoris, Long Isl- 
and. His daughter Sarah Chauncey Woolsey 
is the popular writer known as '' Susan Cool- 
idge." His other daughter, Jane Woolsey, is 
the wife of the Rev. Henry Albert Yardley, a 
graduate of Yale, tutor there, and subsequent- 
ly Professor in the Episcopal Theological 
Seminary at Middletown, Conne6licut. 

William Cecil Woolsey, twin with John 
Mumford Woolsey, was graduated in the 
same class with him at Yale in 18 13, and mar- 
ried in 1829 Catharine Rebekah, daughter of 
Gen. Theodorus Bailey of New York. He 
was an auctioneer in New York. His daugh- 
ter Ann Eliza married Samuel Fisher Carm- 
alt, a large land owner at Lake Wyalusing, 
Pa. His son William Walton Woolsey, M. 
D., studied medicine at Yale and became a 
physician at Dubuque, Iowa. 

Laura Woolsey, daughter of Wm. W. 
Woolsey, married Samuel William Johnson, a 



PRES'. WOOLSfiY. 307 

graduate of Union College, a resident of 
Stratford Conn. Her son Samuel William 
Johnson was graduated at the College of New 
Jersey in 1849 ^^^ ^^ the Law Department of 
Harvard College in 1851. Her daughter 
Laura Woolsey Johnson married Dr. William 
Henry Carmalt, a brother of the husband of 
her cousin Ann Eliza Woolsey. Her son 
Woolsey Johnson, M. D., was graduated at 
the College of New Jersey in i860 and at the 
New York Medical College in 1863. He is 
a physician in New York City. 

Theodore Dwight Woolsey, D. D., LL. 
D., son of W. W. Woolsey and Elizabeth 
Dwight, was born 06lober 31, 1801, grad- 
uated at Yale in 1820 and then tutor there 
three years. After studying theology in 
Princeton and New Haven, he gave several 
years to study and travel in Europe until 
1830. The next year he became the Profes- 
sor of the Greek Language and Literature^ in 
Yale College and continued in this Professor- 
ship twenty years. For twenty-five years he 
was President of Yale, and then resigned the 
Presidency, but continues to give instru6lion 
in three of the departments of the college. 
He is a voluminous author. President of the 



3o8 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Evangelical Alliance, and President of the 
New Testament Revisers of the Bible. His 
daughter Agnes is the wife of the Rev. Ed- 
o-ar Laine Heermance, Pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church of White Plains, New York, 
who is a son of the Rev. Henry Heermance 
of Kinderhook, New York. President Wool- 
sey's son, Theodore Salisbuiy Woolsey, LL. 
B., is Professor of International Law in Yale 
College. 

President Woolsey's sister Sarah married 
Charles Frederick Johnson, a lawyer by pro- 
fession, an amateur farmer by occupation, 
at Owego, New York. Their eldest son, 
Charles Frederick, was graduated at Yale in 
1855, was assistant Professor of Mathematics 
in the U. S. Naval Academy from 1865 to 
1870, and is the Superintendent of the Bristol 
Iron Works, Owego, New York. He mar- 
ried a daughter of the Hon. William J. Mc 
Alpine, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 

The second son of Charles Frederick and 
Sarah Woolsey Johnson is William Woolsey 
Johnson, who was graduated at Yale in 1862, 
Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the U. 
S. Naval Academy from 1864 to 1869, then 
Professor of Mathematics in Kenyon College, 



DUNLAP, ROWLAND. 309 

Gambler, Ohio, and since 1872 Professor of 
Mathematics in St. John's College, Annapolis, 
Maryland. 

Elizabeth Woolsey, daughter of Benjamin 
Woolsey, Jr., and Ann Muirson married Wil- 
liam Dimlap, who bore the colors of the 47th 
Regiment, " Wolfe's Own," on the Plains of 
Abraham, when Wolfe gained the great victory 
and died. William Dunlap was a voluminous 
author, and among his books are a Biography 
of Charles Brockden Brown, The Arts of De- 
sign in the United States, and The History of 
the New Netherlands. He was a pupil of 
Benjamin West, and is best known as a painter. 

Our third pastor's grandson, George Muir- 
son Woolsey, son of Benjamin, married Abby, 
daughter of Joseph Howland. He was large- 
ly engaged in shipping in New York, owned 
Green Hook, Long Island, and died at his 
country-seat in Newtown, Long Island. His 
son Charles William Woolsey perished In the 
Lexington on Long Island Sound, January 
13, 1840, leaving a widow and eight children, 
the eldest twelve years old. His daughter 
Mary Elizabeth Watts Is the wife of the Rev. 
Dr. Robert S. Howland, Rector of the Church 
of the Heavenly Rest, Fifth Avenue, New 



310 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

York. His daughter Georglana Mulrson Is 
the wife of Francis Bacon, who was grackiated 
M. D. at Yale, and is the Professor of Sur- 
gery in that College — a son of the Rev. Leon- 
ard Bacon, D. D., L.L. D. Charles Wm. Wool- 
sey's daughter Eliza Newton married Col- 
Joseph Rowland, an author and amateur 
farmer at Matteawan, New York. Another 
daughter of the same family, Harriet Roose- 
velt, married Dr. Hugh Lenox Dodge, L.L. 
D., Professor in the Medical Department of 
the University of Pennsylvania — the brother 
of the Rev. Charles Dodge D. D., LL. D. 
Another daughter, Caroline Carson, married 
Edward Mitchell, a graduate of Columbia 
College, a lawyer of New York, son of Judge 
William Mitchell of that city. The son of 
Charles William Woolsey, Col. Charles Wil- 
liam Woolsey, married Arixene Southgate 
Smith, eldest daughter of Henry B. Smith, 
D. D., LL. D., Professor of Theology in the 
Union Theological Seminary, New York City, 
one of the foremost of American scholars, 
thinkers, authors, and his wife Elizabeth Lee, 
his biographer, daughter of William Allen, D. 
D., President of Bowdoin College. Col. 



WOOLS EYS. 311 

Woolsey is a gentleman farmer at Briar Cliff, 
near Sing Sing, New York. 

Our third pastor's grandson George Muir- 
son Woolsey had a son, Edward John Wool- 
sey, who married Emily Phillips Aspinwall, 
sister of William H. Aspinwall and John 
Lloyd Aspinwall, New York, and who died at 
Astoria, Long Island, June 30, 1873, aged 71 
years, leaving to his son Edward John Wool- 
sey, Jr., one hundred thousand dollars and his 
real estate in Newtown, Long Island, with 
the furniture, books, pi6lures, wines, crops 
and farm utensils and stock, and a farm and 
island adjoining, with other property ; and to 
his wife all the rest of his real and personal 
estate, including a country seat at Lenox, 
Massachusetts, one of the finest in the State. 

Our third Pastor's second daughter, Hannah, 
married Samuel McCoun of Oyster Bay, 
Long Island. 

The third daughter, Mary, married, first, 
Piatt Smith, and, after his death. Dr. George 
Muirson of Setauket, Long Island. 

The fourth daughter, Abigail, married the 
Rev. Dr. Noah Welles, a celebrated divine and 
author, the re6lor of the church of Stamford, 
Conne6licut. 



312 HISTORY OF SOUTHOl^D. 

But two of Pastor Woolsey's children who 
married were sons. Most of his descendants 
are in the feminine branches of the family, 
and these are perhaps not less eminent and 
fruitful than the male branches. 

Among the distinguished names in these 
branches are those of Lt. Gov. John Broome ; 
Dr. James Cogswell ; Chancellor William T. 
McCoun ; Hon. Samuel McCoun ; Rear-Ad- 
miral Samuel Livingston Breese, U. S. Navy ; 
Hon. Sidney Breese, Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court of Illinois, U. S. Senator; Sarah 
Elizabeth Griswold, wife of Samuel Finley 
Breese Morse, LL. D., inventor of the tele- 
graph ; Susan Breese, wife of the Rev. Dr. 
Pierre Alexis Proal ; Arthur Breese, U. S. 
Navy; Hon. Peter W. Radcliff; Mary Welles 
Davenport, wife of James Boorman of New 
York; Rev. John Sidney Davenport; Julia 
Davenport Wheeler, wife of Selah Brewster 
Strong, Esq., of St. George's Manor, Setau- 
ket, L. I.; Rev. James Radcliff Davenport; 
Dr. Benjamin Welles; Rev. Benjamin Welles ; 
George Welles McClure, U. S. Army ; Henry 
Welles, twenty-one years Judge of the Supreme 
Court of New York; Sarah Haight Welles, 
wife of the Hon, Thomas A. Johnson, Judge 



WOOLSEY KIN. 313 

of the Supreme Court of New York ; Mary 
Eliza and Helen Lydia Welles, successively 
wives of William Johnson, President of the 
New Haven City Bank and of the New Ha- 
ven and Northampton Railroad ; Abigail 
Woolsey Welles, wife of the Rev. Dr. Henry 
Gilbert Ludlow, and mother of the well known 
authors, Fitzhugh and Helen Welles Ludlow. 

After the removal of the Rev. Benjamin 
Woolsey to Dosoris, the church of Southold 
was destitute of a pastor for two years ; but 
on the 26th of 06lober, 1738, an ecclesiasti- 
cal council ordained and installed the Rev. 
James Davenport as its Pastor. 

His great-grandfather had been a celebrat- 
ed minister in London, England, and also in 
Holland, was the chief founder of the City 
and the Colony of New Haven, where he was 
the first Minister of the Church. After the 
New Haven Colony became identified with 
that of Connecticut, under the charter of the 
latter, a union which he had most strenuously 
resisted on behalf of the New Haven Colony, 
and which was very unsatisfactory to himself* 
he accepted a call to be the Pastor of the 
First Church of Boston, Massachusetts, in 
which office he died. He was one of the 
?7 



314 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

greatest, best and most influential men in the 
early history of New England. 

The father of our fourth Pastor was the 
Rev. John Davenport, who was graduated at 
Harvard College in 1687 ^^"^^ ordained and 
installed the Pastor of Stamford, Conne6licut, 
in 1694, and died in this office on the fifth of 
February, 1731, aged sixty-one years, having 
been an eminently faithful and useful minis- 
ter, and so familiar with the original languages 
of the Bible that he was accustomed to use 
them, and not a translation into English, in 
his family worship. 

His son James was born in Stamford, when 
his father had become forty years of age, in 
1 7 10, was graduated at Yale College in 1732, 
second in social position in a class of twenty- 
three, of whom nine became Ministers of the 
Gospel. During three years of his College 
course, two Southold men pursued their stud- 
ies with him in Yale, namely, Simon Horton 
and Abner Reeve, who were graduated one 
year preceding him. Though he was twenty- 
two years of age at the time of his graduation, 
he continued to reside in New Haven for sev- 
eral years thereafter, and during this period 
he pursued his preparation for the gospel 



DAVENPORt. 315 

ministry with so much ardor and devotion 
that his health was greatly impaired. He put 
himself under the medical treatment of Dr. 
Hubbard of that city, but this physician's 
skill seeming to be inadequate to the case, he 
went to Killingworth, Conne6licut, and be- 
came a member of the family of the Rev. Dr. 
Jared Eliot — justly celebrated both as a phy- 
sician and a minister — in order that he might 
have the benefit of his medical knowledge 
and prescriptions. In this way, after a few 
months, he so far recovered his health that he 
was able to return to New Haven and resume 
his studies. But this early breaking down of 
his health prepared the way for subsequent 
ailments and diseases which greatly affe6led 
both his body and his mind, and caused most 
unhappy and painful consequences to himself 
and to others during the later years of his 
pastoral relation to the Church of Southold, 
from which he was not released until 1744. 
Throughout the two earlier years of his min- 
istry here, there was little departure from the 
orderly and faithful attention to his pastoral 
duties and little want of the satisfa6lory per- 
formance thereof; for in these earlier years 
there was no serious failure of his health — no 



3l6 HISTORY OF S(3inHOLD. 

prostration of his reason and judgment by 
overpowering mental and physical maladies. 
When the first century of the History of 
Southold closed, In 1740, he had not become 
deeply involved in those erratic and irrational 
proceedings for which he has been severely re- 
proached, and somewhat unjustly blamed, be- 
cause sufficient allowance has not been gen- 
erally made for the effe61:s of the diseases 
from which he was suffering In mind and body, 
and which rendered him in the just judgment 
of the Civil Court of Boston non coiupos mentis, 
and therefore not guilty, even though It was 
evident that he had, in the denunciation of 
good men, committed offences which a per- 
son of sound mind could not have committed 
without making himself worthy of condemna- 
tion and liable to punishment. 

In the spring of 1738 his ministry was de- 
sired at Maidenhead and Hopewell, now Law- 
rencevllle and Pennington, New Jersey, and 
the Presbytery of Philadelphia wrote to him 
in behalf of those congregations ; but, as the 
Rev. Dr. Sprague says In his " Annals of the 
American Pulpit," Vol. 3, p. 81, "he received 
a call from Southold, Long Island, about the 
same time, to which he gave the preference. 



FOURTH pastor's ORDINATION. 517 

Southold was the oldest town on the Island, 
and had been left vacant, in 1736, by the re- 
moval of the Rev. Benjamin Woolsey. His 
ordination took place on the 26th of 06lober, 
1738. Among the ministers composing the 
council was his brother-in-law, the Rev. (after- 
wards Dr.) Stephen Williams of Longmead- 
ow. 

The Rev. Richard Webster, in his '' Histo- 
ry of the Presbyterian Church in America," 
makes essentially the same statements re- 
spedling Mr. Davenport, thus : " He seems 
to have preached in New Jersey in the close 
of 1737; ^or Philadelphia Presbytery gave 
leave, March 12, 1738, to Maidenhead and 
Hopewell, (Lawrence and Pennington,) to 
send for him, and also wrote a letter for them 
to him. He preferred to settle at Southold, 
the oldest town on Long Island, left vacant 
in 1736 by the removal of Mr. Woolsey, and 
was ordained by a council, 061. 26th, 1738." 

The remarkable career of this famous man 
in the later years of his pastoral relation to 
the F'irst Church of Southold, is worthy of 
lull and careful narration ; but the narrative 
does not properly belong to the history of the 
First Century of this place, and must wait for 



3" I 8' HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD.. 

another volume. It will for the present suf- 
fice to add, that his wayward and turbulent 
course continued as long as he was under the 
control of those maladies, which made him, in 
the judgment of good sense and charitable 
constru6lion, not responsible for his enthusi- 
asm, bitterness, fanatical errors and unjust 
denunciations of good men, in all of which he 
followed in the footsteps of Whitefield, but 
not with equal rashness and culpability. 

The latest years of his life were marked by 
humility of heart, sweetness of disposition, 
and a becoming sobriety of temper and judg- 
ment. And it should not be overlooked, that 
these latest years were devoted to the spirit- 
ual welfare of ".the people of Maidenhead and 
Hopewell " in the very place where his servi- 
ces were desired twenty years before the date 
of his death and just before his settlement in 
Southold. He died while he was the pastor 
of the New Side Presbyterian church of Hope- 
well, whose house of worship stood about a 
mile west of Pennington. He was buried in 
the cemetery which marks the site where this 
church edifice, now gone, formerly stood. 

On the eighteenth of May, 1877, 1 visited 
this hallowed ground. By the kindness of 



NEW SIDE CxRAVE YARD. 319 

the Rev George Hale, D. D., former Pastor 
of the First Presbyterian Church of Penning- 
ton and now Secretary of the General Assem- 
bly's Board of Ministerial Relief, I became 
the guest of the Rev. Daniel R. Foster, the 
present Pastor of that church, whose abund- 
ant hospitality included a drive in his com- 
fortable carriage to this old cemetery of the 
''New Side" Presbyterians of the neighbor- 
hood in Colonial times. The day was warm 
for the month of May, the temperature being 
90 in the shade. The cemetery fronts towards 
the south or southwest. There is a bluff a 
few feet hieh between it and the carriao^e 
way in the public road that passes by it. On 
the same general level with the top of this 
low bluff is the greater part of the burying 
ground, which slopes down very gently 
towards the east. In front of the cemetery 
is a substantial wall as high as a man's waist, 
and distant perhaps two rods from the edge 
of the bluff at the side of the road. This 
space of ground between the edge of the 
bluff and the wall, and extending the whole 
length of the cemetery, is beautifully covered 
with natural sward, in which grow a few large 
and noble trees — a maple, two or three white 



320 HISTORY OF SOUTH OLO. 

oaks and as many black walnuts. The effe6ls 
of age and of storms can be seen upon the 
maple. There are also a few fine trees with- 
in the sacred grounds. North or north-west 
of Mr. Davenport's grave — a rod distant from 
its side — is a mao^nificent elm. Another 
somewhat more remote from the foot of the 
tomb lifts its noble form high into the air. 
The marble over the grave is a large horizon- 
tal slab, and the inscription is carefully and 
neatly cut. The marble rests on a substru61- 
ure of brick-work, in which a few of the bricks 
at the head of the orrave have become dis- 
placed. 

On the south of the ofrave is that of Mrs. 
Davenport, marked with a vertical stone at 
the head, which is towards the west, and the 
inscription is on the west face of the stone. 
The lettering is neat and legible. 

The land on every side for a mile away is 
fertile and well cultivated. Many single trees 
stand here and there in fields, or alonor the 
lines of fences ; enough to give to the scene 
in a warm day the aspe6t of retirement, fresh- 
ness and repose. The effe6l is heightened 
by the circumstance, that but few dwellings or 



DAVENPORT INSCRIPTIONS. 32 1 

Other buildings stand nearer than hah' a mile 
from the cemetery. 

The inscriptions are as follows: 

IN MEMORY OF 

The Revd. JAMES DAVENPORT 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 

NOVR. lOTH 1757, 

AGED 40 YEARS. 

Oh Davenport, a Seraph once in Clay, 

A hrighter Seraph now in heavenly Day, 

How glow'd thy Heart, with sacred Love and zeal ! 

How like to that thy kindred Angels feel ! 

Cloth'd in Humility, thy Virtues shone, 

In every eye illustrious but thine own. 

How like thy Master, on whose friendly Breast 

Thou oft hast lean'd, and shalt forever rest ! 

IN 

IN MEMORY OF 

PARNEL WIFE OF 

THE REVD 

JAMES DAVENPORT 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 

AUGUST 2 1ST I789 

AGED 60 YEARS. 

Mr. Davenport had one son, John, who 
was born at Philippi, New Jersey, August 1 1 , 
1752, graduated at the College of New Jer- 
sey in 1769, being a classmate with the Rev. 
Dr. Matthias Burnett, Gov. John Henry of 
Maryland, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Stanhope 



322 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Smith, President of the College. He studied 
for the ministry under the Rev. Dr. Joseph 
Bellamy, of Bethlehem, Conne6licut, and also 
under the Rev. Dr. Samuel Buell, of Easthamp- 
ton, Long Island. In his early life he was 
an intimate friend of Aaron Burr, and while 
pursuing his theological studies under Dr- 
Buell, he wrote to Burr, who was residing 
with Dr. Bellamy, and made known his desire, 
that this ambitious man would give himself to 
the ministry of the gospel. He said : "I 
hope you are by this time fully"~fesolved to 
engage in the sacred work of the ministry, 
and that you see your way clear to do it. 
You are placed under a very judicious as well 
as pious divine, whose instru6lion and con- 
versation have, I hope, proved to your spirit- 
ual benefit. I rejoice to find you are pleased 
with your situation, and wish it may continue." 
John Davenport was ordained at Easthamp- 
ton, Long Island, by the Presbytery of Suf- 
folk County, on the fifteenth of June, 1774. 
The Rev. Messrs. John Storrs, Ebenezer Prime, 
Samuel Buell, James Brown, Joshua Hart and 
David Rose took part in the service. He re- 
mained in the Presbytery of Suffolk County 
until April 12, 1786, when he was dismissed 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 323 

to accept a call to be the Pastor of the church 
at Bedford, Westchester County, New York. 
While he remained on the Island he minister- 
ed chiefly at Mattituck. After his ministry at 
Bedford, he was installed as the Pastor of the 
church in Deerfield, Cumberland County, 
New Jersey, August 12, 1795, and was releas- 
ed on account of ill health in October, 1805. 
He returned to the State of New York in 
1809, and died at Lysander, Onondaga Coun- 
ty, July 13, 1 82 1, in the 69th year of his age. 
He had a sister older than himself. Her 
name was Elizabeth. She married Mr. Enos 
Kelsey, a merchant of Princeton, New Jersey, 
where they lived and died. Their graves are 
in the Princeton cemetery. 

Throughout the later periods of the First 
Century of Southold the civil government was 
orderly and peaceful. The royal province, 
after the departure of Cornbury, was under 
the administrations of Gov. John Lovelace, 
1 708-1 7 10; Gov. Robert Hunter, 17 10-17 19; 
Gov. William Burnet, 1 720-1 727 ; Gov. John 
Montgomerie, 1 728-1 731 ; Gov. William Cos- 
by, 1 732-1 736; Lieut. Gov. George Clarke, 
1 736-1 743. The members ot the Assembly 
from Suffolk were William Nicholl, 1701- 



324 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLI). 

1723, Speaker, in 1702-1716; Samuel Mul 
ford, 1705-1720; Samuel Hutchinson, 1 721- 
1737; Epenetus Piatt, 1723-1739. 




C^A-h/i-fcry^ 



Autograph of Samuel HulcliinsDU in 1721. 

For the county administration in this pe- 
riod the County Judges were successively Jo- 
seph Fordham, who succeeded our Isaac Ar- 
nold, and Henry Smith. The Surrogates, Jo- 
seph Fordham, Jekamiah Scott, Brindley Syl- 
vester and Henry Smith. The Sheriffs were 
Richard Floyd, 1 708, John Brush, Daniel Sayre, 
Joshua Horton, Joseph Wickham, Daniel 
Youngs, Samuel Dayton, William Sell, Joseph 
Smith, David Corey, Jacob Conklin, and in 
1740, Thomas Higbie. The County Clerks 
were Andrew Gibb, C. Congreve, Samuel 
Hudson and W illiam Smith. In this period 
Shelter Island became detached from South- 
old in the civil administration of Town affairs. 
It had hitherto been a part of the Town of 
Southold in political organization as well as 



SHELTER I Si. AND. 325 

in church relations. But in i 730 it was erect- 
ed into a separate corporation, having at that 
time twenty men who were of full age, namely : 
Joel Bowditch, John Bowditch, Daniel Brown, 
Thomas Conklin, Edward Oilman, Edward 
Havens, George Havens, Henry Havens, 
John Havens, Jonathan Havens, Joseph Hav- 
ens, Samuel Hopkins, Samuel Hudson, Syl- 
vester L'Hommedieu. William Nicholl, Abra- 
ham Parker. Elisha Paine, Brindley Sylvester, 
Noah Tuthill and Samuel Vail. Some of 
these persons, especially William Nicholl and 
Brindley Sylvester, like wealthy men on all 
parts of Long Island, owned many negro 
slaves. Their first Town Meeting was held 
April 7. 1730. and William Nicholl was chos- 
en Supervisor ; John Havens and Samuel 
Hudson, Assessors ; Edward Havens, Colle61:- 
or ; and Edward Oilman, Clerk. 

In 1733 they built a church edifice with a 
view to the uses of the Town and the forma- 
tion of a Presbyterian Church. The congre- 
gation was incorporated under the law^ of the 
State on the 26th of April, 1785, when John N. 
Havens, Sylvester Deering and William Bow- 
ditch were elefted Trustees ; but the church 
was not fully organized until 1808. Brindley 

28 



326 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Sylvester, son of Nathaniel Sylvester, was a 
grandson of that Nathaniel Sylvester, who in 
1674 became the owner of the whole of Shel- 
ter Island. This Brindley Sylvester maintain- 
ed his own private Chaplain, the Licentiate 
William Adams, a son of the Rev. Eliphalet 
Adams, of New London. But Mr. Sylvester's 
church membership was in the Southold 
church and here he worshipped habitually, 
and his family also, every Sabbath day. His 
boat was rowed for this purpose by four men 
or by six men according to the condition of 
wind, tide and weather. On the death of Mr, 
Sylvester, whose funeral was condu6led by 
the Rev. William Throop, Pastor of Southold, 
and the sermon printed in Boston, the Licen- 
tiate William Adams became in 1752 the 
Chaplain of Thomas Deering, son-in-law of 
Mr. Sylvester. It was in 1737 that Mr. Syl- 
vester ere6led his dwelling, which is now the 
summer residence of Prof. Eben N. Horsford, 
Mrs. Horsford, a daughter of the late Samuel 
S. Gardiner, Esq., being an heir through the 
Havens and the L'Hommedieu families. It 
was in part built of materials imported from 
England and used in the construction of his 
grandfather's residence in 1670. In 1695 



SUPERVISORS. 327 

Brindley Sylvester's uncle Giles Sylvester 
sold one fourth of the Island to William 
Nicholl for ;^500, and by will in 1720 he 
gave him another quarter of it. In 1695, 
also, Brindley Sylvester's father sold one 
thousand acres in the centre of the Island 
to George Havens, a Welshman. 

This separation of Shelter Island from 
Southold in its political organization was the 
chief event in the civil affairs of the old Town 
in the later periods of its First Century. 

From 1694 until the present day the prin- 
cipal civil officer of the Town has been the 
Supervisor. During the first half of the last 
century this office was filled successively by 
John Tuthill, Benjamin Youngs, Thomas 
Mapes, James Reeve, Samuel Hutchinson, 
Samuel Beebe, James Fanning, Thomas 
Reeve, Joshua Youngs, and Samuel Landon ; 
by the latter from 1739 to 1752. 

In these orderly and peaceful times, the 
people were virtuous, diligent and prosperous, 
increasing in number, intelligence and wealth. 
They well maintained the good chara6ler of 
the Church and Town. 



INDEX. 



Adams, William, the chaplain of Brindley Sylvester, 326. 

Akerly, Robert, came early to Southold, 32, 45 ; removed 
to Brook Haven, 50. 

Allerton, Isaac, 252. 

Ames, Rev. Dr. William, widow and children of, in balem 
and lands there voted them, 24; his life and char- 
a<fter, 250. 251. 

Andros, Major Edmund, thanked by the Duke of \ ork 
for compelling the East End to submit to his gov- 
ernment, 194. 

Aquebogue, purchase from the Indians of, 202. 

Arnold, Isaac, born about 1640 and died in 1706, a chief 
man of Southold in the second generation, 34; here 
before the death of the first pastor, 45 : a merchant, 
ship-owner, patentee of the town, judge of the coun- 
ty, judge of Leisler, 86 ; slave-owner, 87 ; site of his 
house, 86, Zy ; appointed in 1673 schout of the east 
end towns, 149; declined the office, 157; authorized 
to have a pew in the Meeting House, 212. 

Autograph of Benjamin Youngs, 192; of William Wells, 
198; of Benjamin Woolsey, 259; of Samuel Hutch- 
inson, 324. 

Bacon, Rev. Dr. Leonard, "Historical Discourses" of, 

56 ; quotation from his pen, 57. 
Baker, Thomas, an early settler of Southold, 45 ; removed 

to Easthampton, 49. 
Bancroft, George, testimony of, to the Puritans, 65. 



330 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Banisters of the Meeting House gallery, bill for, 233. 

Baptism basin, bill for tending with, 233. 

Barbadoes, trade of Southold with, 94. 

Barberini, popedom of, 73. 

Barrow, Isaac, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 76. 

Baskingridge, N. }., 278, 279. 

Baxter, Richard, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 76 ; published his Theology in the year of 
the Rev. Joshua Hobart's ordination, 196. 

Bayley, John, an early settler of Southold, removed to 
Jamaica, first of the patentees and of the purchasers 
of the Indian title of Elizabeth, N. J., 28, 45, 51. 

Bellamont, Lord, Governor of New York. 237. 

Bellamy, Rev, Dr. Joseph. 266. 

Bellarmine, Cardinal, 251. 

Benedict, Henry M., author of the " Benedict Genealogy," 

51. 

Benedi(fl, Thomas, an early settler of Southold, 45 ; his 
nine children born here, removed to Jamaica and 
then to Norwalk, Ct., 51. 

Benjamin, Richard, an early settler of Southold, grave- 
digger, site of his house, 85 ; freed from training, 
etc., 197. 

Benjamin, Simeon, an early settler of Southold, 45. 

Biblical code, advantages of, 98-100. 

Blue Laws of Connedlicut. an imaginary code, 62. 

Board of Church Trustees in Southold. first ele(fted, 230. 

Bochart, Samuel, 75. 

Bonsly, Rev. \V. T.. Diocesan Registrar of Norwich, 
letter of, 21. 

Booth, John, an early settler of Southold, 45. 

Boundary Commissioners merge New Haven in Con- 
necticut, 68, 69; private instracftions to. no. 

Boundaries between Southold and Southampton ad- 
justed, 94. 

Bowne, John, described by Capt. John Underbill, 50; 
married Hannah Feke, 51. 

Brainerd, Rev. Messrs. David and John, and Rev. Dr. 
Thomas, 267. 

Branford, people of, removed to Newark, N. J., 69. 

Brazil in 1640 acquired by the Netherlands, 73. 

Brewster, Rev. James F., pastor of the Presbyterian 
church of Chester, N. J., quotation from, 273. 



iND£x. i3^ 

British troops in Southold during the war of Independ- 
ence, 243. 

Brook Haven submitted to the Dutch. 152. 

Brown, Richard, an earl}^ settler of Southold, 45. 

Brown, Richard. Jr., an early settler, 45. 

Budd, John, sketch of. 34, 35. 45: site of his Southold 
home, 84. - J f 

Bunyan, John, contemporary with the founders ot 
Southold, 74; published in 1678 the Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress, 196. 

Burr, Rev. Aaron. 262. 

Burr. Aaron, Vice-President of the United States, 262. 

Byles, Rev. Dr. Mather, author of Rev. Joshua Hobart's 
epitaph, 243, 244. 

Calves' Neck, allotment of, 90, 91. 

Carpenter, Richard, residence of, 198. 

Carroll, Col. Thomas, residence of, 85. 

Carwithe, David, an early settler, 45. 

Case, Albertson, Esq., quotation from his " Historical 

Sketch of Southold," 83, 84. 
Case, Henry, an early settler, 45 ; site ol his home-lot, 85. 
Case, J.Wickham, built the residence now on Charles 

Glover's original home-lot, 85. 
Cemetery of the First Church, 123. 
Changes and war, 129. 

Changes of the Southold tax lists in eight years, 221, 222. 
Chapter 1., 17-78; H., 81-126 ; HI.. 129-164 ; IV.. 167-187 ; 

v.. 191-245; VI., 249-282; VII., 285-327. 
Charles II. desired to oppress the Puritans in America, 

1 10 ; his character, 1 11 ; his death, 161 . 
Chester, N. J., migration to and sketch of, 272-277. 
Cheston. Roger, an early settler, 45. 
Chief Concern of the east end towns, 148. 
Children bequeathed, 94. 
Chillingworth, William, contemporary with the founders 

of Southold, 74. 
Church ceased to be a Town church and became an In- 
dependent church, 281. 
Church edifice, first in Southold, where built, 57 ; second, 

third, fourth, 217. 
Church goers in cold weather. 281. 
Clarendon, Earl of, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 76; father of Lord Cornbury, 235. 



332 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Clark, Richard, an early settler, 45. 

Clarke, Samuel, bill of, for building the Meeting House 

gallery, 233. 
Clerks of the county, 324. 
Cleveland, Benjamin, Genealogy of, 122. 
Cleveland, Deacon Moses C, residence of, 198. 
Code, Biblical, knowledge of, in Southold, 99. 
Coe, Judge Benjamin, 264, 265. 
Coke, Sir Edward, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 74. 
Colbert, statesman of France, 195. 
Colve, Capt. Anthony, Governor of New York, characfler 

and administration of, 141 ; his authority declined by 

the East End, 141, 142; letter of, to the Governor of 

Conne(5licut, 160. 
Commerce in the early years of Southold, 'j']. 
Commissioners of Emigration, 18, 19. 
Commissioners of the Dutch visit the East End, 1 58 ; and 

return to New York, 159. 
Common and undivided lands, laws relating to, 209-211. 
Commoners' incorporation, 209, 210. 
Conklin, David T. , residence of, east of Capt. John Un- 

derhill's original home-lot, 85. 
Conklin, Jacob and Samuel, bills of, for Meeting House 

banisters, 233. 
Conklin, Jacob, an early settler, 45, 
Conklin, John, an early settler, removed to Huntington, 

33. 45- 
Conklin, John, Jr., an early settler, 45 ; tomb-stone of, 

122. 

Conne(flicut, boundaries of, extended over the New Haven 
Colony, 68 ; charter of, 130; appointed its Governor 
and Capt. John Youngs of Southold to settle the 
English Plantations on Long Island, but soon dis- 
claimed these towns, 131-133. 

Convenience houses, 281, 282. 

Cooper, John, an early settler of Southampton, 31 ; in 
Southold warns the Dutch, 157, 158. 

Cooper, Thomas, an earl}^ settler of Southold, 4$. 

Corey, Abraham, an early settler, 45. 

Corey, Jacob, born perhaps in Southold, 33 ; lived here 
before pastor Youngs's death, 45 ; an appraiser of 
the pastor's estate, 115 ; and died here in 1706. 

Corey, John, an early settler, 45. 



INDEX. 333 

Cornbury, Lord, persecuted the Presbyterians, 237-239. 

Corwin, Rev. Edward Tanjore, D. D., "Corwin Gene- 
alogy " of, 32. 

Corwin, John, an early settler, 45 ; appraiser of the first 
pastor's estate, 115. 

Corwin, John and Hannah, bills of, for sweeping the 
Meeting House, 233. 

Corwin, Matthias, came early to Southold, 32 ; contem- 
porar}^ with the first Pastor, 45 ; ancestor of many 
eminent men, 55. 

County of Suffolk formed, 282. 

County Court, where held, 282. 

County Court House built at Riverhead, 282. 

Cow keeping, 93. 

Cowley, Abraham, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 76. 

Cramer, William, an earlv settler, 45 ; removed to Eliza- 
beth, N. J., 52. 

Criminal laws, mildness of the Biblical code, 99. 

Cromwell, Oliver, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 75. 

Curtis, Caleb, an early settler, 45. 

Curtis, Thomas, an early settler, 45. 

Cutchogue, purchase from the Indians of, 202. 

Cuyler, Rev. Dr. Theodore Ledyard, a descendant of the 
Rev. Azariah Horton, 269. 

Davenport, Rev. John, first Pastor of New Haven, set 
forth the purposes of the Jurisdi(flion, 56; removed 
to Boston, 71. 

Davenport, Rev. James, ancestry, birth and education of, 
313 ; called to Maidenhead and Hopewell, N. J., 316 ; 
ordained Pastor of Southold, 317 ; his remarkable 
career, 318 ; removes to Connecticut Farms, N. J., 
264; becomes Pastor of Maidenhead and Hopewell, 
and dies there, 318; description of his burial place 
and inscriptions on the tomb-stones of himself and 
his wife, 319-321. 

Davenport, Rev. John, son of Southold's fourth pastor, 

321-323- 
Dealings with the Indians, 107. 
Deed of Confirmation, 207, 208. 
De Propaganda Fide College founded, 73. 



334 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Des Cartes, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 74. 

Dickerson, John, an earl3^ settler, 46 ; removed to Eliza- 
beth, N. J., 52. 

Dickerson, Mahlon, ere(5led in Southold a monument to 
the memory of his ancestor Philemon, and Phile- 
mon's sons, Peter and Thomas, and the latter's sons 
who removed to Morris county, N. J., 53, 122. 

Dickerson, Peter, an early settler, 46. 

Dickerson, Philemon, an early settler, 46, 53 ; site of his 
home-lot, 85. 

Dickerson, Philemon, Governor of New Jersey, a de- 
scendant of Philemon Dickerson of Southold, 53, 1 22. 

Dickinson, Daniel S., Senator of the United States, a de- 
scendant of Philemon Dickerson of Southold, 53. 122. 

Dickinson, Rev. Jonathan, first President of the College 
of New Jersey, 241. 

Dimon, Thomas, an early settler, 46. 

Division of the parish lands, 280. 

Domenicheno, Zampieri, contemporary with the founders 
of Southold, 75. 

Dongan, Thomas, Governor of New York, the East End 
under the Government of, 194. 

Dordrecht, Synod of, 251. 

Dosoris, description of, 285-291. 

Dryden. John, contemporary of Rev. Joshua Hobart, 196. 

Dutch armed vessels recapture New York, 140; leave 
Capt. Anthony Colve, Governor, and carry Gov. 
Lovelace to Europe, 14T. 

Dutch Government grants privilege to the East End 
towns, 147; appoints officers for Southold, 149. 

Dutch and Connc(51icut Commissioners encounter in 
Southold, 155. 

Dwight, Dr. Benjamin \V., the "Woolsey Genealogy" 
of, 292. 

Dwight, Rev. Dr. Timothy, husband of Mary Woolsey, 
and their descendants, 302, 303. 

Early settlers of Southold, virtues of, 44 ; life and works, 

161 ; their household furniture and farming utensils, 

162 ; had no physician, 164; their household and pub- 
lic worship, 164. 

East End asks protedlion for the whale fishing, 142; re- 
quired but declined to swear fidelity to the Dutch, 



INDEX. 335 

150; under the administration of Gov. Dongan, 194; 

effe6l of the English Revolution of 1688 on, 194. 
East Riding of Yorkshire on Long Island asks the Dutch 

conquerors for privileges, 144. 
Edes, Nicholas, an early settler, 46. 
Education required in Southold early, loi. 
Edwards, Matthias, an early settler, 46. 
Elizabeth, N. J., migration to, 272. 
Elton, John, an early settler, 46. 
Emigration, Commissioners of, forbid Rev. John Youngs's 

passage, 18; when appointed, 19. 
England, John, an early settler, 46. 

English in New England when Southold was settled, yS. 
Episcopal Church, introdu61;ion of, into New York, 235- 

237. 
Esty, Jeffrey, an early settler, 46. 
Europe, condition of, in the earlier part of the Rev. 

Joshua Hobart's ministry, 195. 
Evans, Rev. Dr. James S., 277. , 

Exchange of land for the Rev. Joshua Hobart, 181. 

Fac Simile of the writing of William Wells, Recorder, 
198; of the signature of Benjamin Youngs, 192; of 
the signature of Benjamin Woolsey, 259 ; of the sig- 
nature of Samuel Hutchinson, 324. 

Pauley, William, an early settler, 46; removed to Brook 
Haven, 50. " ■ , . , . 

Farrett, James, leased land in Southold to Matthew Sun- 
derland June 18, 1639; gave a receipt, September 4,' 
1639, for rent paid thereon, and September 9, 1640, 
another receipt for the second year's rent, 36 ; this 
lease granted a year earlier than his first transac- 
tions with the settlers of Southampton, 37 ; gave to 
Richard Jackson a deed for land in Southold, August 
15, 1640, earlier than his deed for land in Southamp- 
ton. 37. 

Farrington, Edmund, promoted the settlement of South- 
ampton, 32, 

Feke, Elizabeth, wife of Capt. John Underbill, and sister 
of John Bowne's wife, 50, 

Feke, Hannah, prospedive marriage of, made known to 
Gov. Winthrop, 50. 

First Church of Southold eleded Trustees earlier than 
any other on Long Island, 229. 



33^ 



HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 



First settlers of Southold, names of many, unknown, 
virtues of, 44 ; names of many, 45-48 ; charadler of, 
48 ; some removed, 49; graves where made, 57. 

Fithian, William Y., residence of, on the original home- 
lot of Thomas Moore, 85. 

Flatbush, Reformed Church of, eledled its first Trustees 
later than First Church of Southold did, 229. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor of New York, 236. 

Flint. Benoni, an early settler, 46 ; witness of the Indian 
deed, 204. 

Floyd, Hon. David G., 270. 

Franklin, John, an early settler, 46. 

French. Rev. Frederick, Recf^or of Worlingworth and 
Southolt, letter of, 21. 

Frost, John, an early settler, 46 ; removed to Brook 
Haven, 50. 

Fundamental order or constitution of the New Haven 
Colony, 66-68. 

Galileo, Galilei, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, persecuted, 73. 
Gallery built in 1699 at the west end of the Meeting 

House and in 1700 at the east end, 232; bill therefor, 

233- 

Gardiner, Samuel S., 326. 

Glover, Charles, an early settler, 46; site of his home- 
lot, 85. 

Glover, Samuel, an early settler, 46. 

Goldsmith, Beulah, residence of, on the original home, 
lot of Henry Case, 85. 

Goldsmith, Major Joshua, one of the original Board of 
Trustees of the First Church, 230; succeeded Free- 
gift Wells as Deacon, 232. 

Goldsmith, Ralph, an early settler, 46. 

Goodyear, Stephen, bought land in Southold of Thomas 
Weatherby and sold it to John Ketcham, 37. 

Governmental changes caused trouble and suffering, 129; 
transferred Southold from New Haven to Connecfli- 
cut. 130; and from Conne61;icut to New York. 132. 

Graves of the first settlers, where made, 57. 

Grave-digger, first, Richard Benjamin. 198. 

Greete, John, an early settler, 46. 

Griffin, Augustus, "Journal "of, contains a fanciful story 
of the settlement of Southold, 26; names of hi.s 



INDEX. 337 

"thirteen adventurers," 27; his characfler, 27; his 
narrative romantic, 28 ; his thirteen adventurers in- 
clude men of different generations, 28. 

Grotius, Hugo, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 74. 

Grover, Samuel, an early settler, 46. 

Grover, Simon, an early settler, 46. 

Guericke, Otto von, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 74. 

Guido, Reni, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 75. 

Gun-racks in church, 109. 

Haines, James, an early settler, 46. 

Haines, John, an early settler, 46 ; removed to Elizabeth 

N. J., 52. 
Hallock, Peter, probably father of William, 30, 
Hallock, William, an early settler, ancestor of Halliocks, 

Hallocks, (including Gerard, Rev. Moses, and other 

eminent men), Hallecks, (including Fitz-Greene, 

Major General Henry Wager, and others), wrote his 

name Holyoake, 30, 46. 
Hallock, Rev, Dr. William A., author of the "Hallock 

Genealogy," 30. 
Hampden, John, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 75. 
Hampton, Rev. John Presbyterian Minister, persecuted 

by Lord Cornbury, 239. 
Harrude, Richard, an early settler, 46. 
Harvey, William, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 74. 
Havens, George, of Shelter Island, 327. 
Hayes, Rev. Charles Wells, author of" William Wells of 

Southold and his descendants," 121. 
Ha3'^es, Robert P., 121. 
Henderson, Rev. Jacob, 258. 
Herbert, John, an early settler, 46. 
Herbert, John, Jr., an early settler, 46; land of, bought 

for the use of the Minister, 223; present church 

edifice and parsonage on it, 225. 
Hildreth, James, an early settler, 46. 
Hillhouse, James, and his kindred, 295, 296. 
Hingham, England, 25. 

39 



338 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Historical Society of Long Island has the Southold 
Church's gun-rack, 109. 

Hobart, Edmund, grandfather of Southold's second pas- 
tor, 167. 

Hobart, Rev. Gershom, birth, life and death of, 171. 

Hobart, Irene, daughter of Pastor Hobart and wife of 
Daniel Way, 245. 

Hobart, Dr. Japheth, birth, life and death of, 171, 172. 

Hobart, Rev. Jeremiah, birth, life and death of, 170; his 
wife and her kindred, 171. 

Hobart. Rev. Joshua, ancestry of, 167; his birth, educa- 
tion, and ordination in Southold, 170; settlement 
and salary, 178-180; cost of his house, time of the 
yearly payment of his salary, relative value of his 
dwelling and salary, 180; site of his dwelling, 182; 
its characfler, and his successors in it, 183; exchange 
of land of, 181, 182 ; prominent and active in politicaJ 
affairs, in the introdu(ftion of new manufaflures and 
mechanic arts, in the pracflice of medicine, in the 
care of the Town poor, in the settlement of estates, 
in the adjustment of disagreements, 211 ; sells his 
house and farm to the Town for a parsonage, 233- 
235; his death, 242; his tomb-stone and epitaph, 
242-245. 

Hobart, Margaret (Vassel), wife of the Rev. Joshua Ho- 
bart, 173. 

Hobart, Mary (Rainsford), wife of the Rev. Joshua Ho- 
bart, marriage of, 173; her death, grave, tomb-stone, 
245. 

Hobart, Rev. Nehemiah, birth, life and death of, 171. 

Hobart, Rev. Noah, nephew of the Southold pastor, 
statements of, respecfling the family. 174. 

Hobart, Rev. Peter, father of the second Pastor of 
Southold, sketch of, 167-170. 

Horton house, enlargement of, for a county court house, 
214; picflure of, 215. 

Horton, Rev. Azariah, sketch of, 265-269; born in the 
old Horton house. Missionary among the Indians at 
Shinnecock and at the Forks of the Delaware, 266- 
268; first Pastor of Madison, N. J.; death, grave, 
and inscription on his tomb-stone, 268 ; monument 
to and descendants of, including the Rev. Theodore 
L. Cuyler, D. D., 269. 
Horton, Barnabas, born in Mouseley, Leicestershire, 



INDEX. 339 

England, 28; after 1640 lived and died in Southold, 
29; an early settler, 46; site of his home-lots, 84; 
description of his tomb-stone, 122. 

Horton, Benjamin, an early settler, 46. 

Horton, Caleb, an early settler, 46. 

Horton, David P., residence of, on the original home- 
lots of Barnabas Horton, 84. 

Horton, George F., M. D., author of the " Horton Gen- 
ealogy," 29. 

Horton, Jonathan, jr., father of the Rev. Azariah Hor- 
ton, 265. 

Horton, Joseph, an early settler, 46. 

Horton, Joshua, appraiser of the first Pastor's estate, 
115. 

Horton, Rev. Simon, born in the old Horton house, 263; 
sketch of, 263-265. 

Horton, Theodore K., visit of, to Mouseley, England. 122. 

Horton, Deacon William, presided at the first elecflion of 
Trustees of the First Church, 231. 

Hospitality in winter to Church-goers, 281. 

Houldsworth, Jonas, an early settler who removed to 
Huntington, 46. 

Howe, Capt. Daniel, a planter of Southampton, 31. 

Howe, John, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 76. 

Howell, George R., historian of Southampton, 31 ; un- 
historic claim of, that Southampton is the oldest 
Town on Long Island, 40. 

Howell, Richard, an early settler, 46. 

Hubbard, Rev. John, of Jamaica, generosity and suff"er- 
ing of, 238. 

Hunter, Col. Robert, Governor of New York, arrests 
persecution and gives Southold an opportunity to 
build a new Meeting House, 239; controversy with 
Episcopal Ministers, 258. 

Huntington submits to the Dutch, 152. 

Hutchinson, Samuel, member of Assembly, etc., auto- 
graph of, 324. 

Hutchinson, Thomas, an early settler, 46; delegate from 
Southold to confer with the Dutch conquerors, 146 ; 
declined to be a magistrate of Southold under the 
Dutch government, 157. 

Huntting, Edward, residence of, on the original hon>e- 
lot of Barnabas Wines, 85. 



340 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Huntting, Jonathan W., residence of. on the original 

home-lot of John Budd, 85. 
Hyde, Edward, Lord Cornbury, Governor of New York, 

chara(fler and administration of, 235-239. 

Incorporation of the Commoners, 209; of the First 
Church, 229-232. 

Indian name of Southold, 25, 43. 

Indian Deed, 202-204. 

Indian names of the sellers of the land of the Town, 204. 

Indian title purchased in August. 1640, after the settle- 
ment of Southold, 39 ; older than Southampton's, 41. 

Indian wars and ravages, 197. 

Indians, Rev. Azariah Morton's Mission to, 266-268. 

Indians, sale of dogs to, prohibited, but on certain con- 
ditions rum and arms allowed, 95; dealings with, 
107. 

Inscriptions on the tomb-stones of Barnabas Horton, 29 ; 
the Rev. John Youngs, 114; William Wells, Esq., 
120; the Rev. Joshua Hobart. 244; the Rev. Ben- 
jamin Woolsey, 292 ; the Rev. James Davenport and 
his wife, 321. 

Interlopers, 61. 

Intrusion needless, 97. 

Isaacs, Esther, wife of Benjamin Woolsey. Jr., and her 
kindred, 299-303. 

Jackson, Richard, an early settler, obtains a deed for land 
in Southold August '15, 1640, and Odober 25, 1640, 
sells his land, house, etc., 37, 46. 

Jamaica, Long Island, Cornbury's robbery of the Presby- 
terians in, 237-239. 

James, Rev. Thomas, delegate from Easthampton to con- 
fer with the Dutch conquerors. 146. 

Jansen, Cornelius, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, Dodrine of Augustine of, 73. 

Jennings, Joseph, an early settler, 46. 

Jessup, John, delegate from Southampton to confer with 
the Dutch conquerors, 146. 

Johnson, Rev. Frank A., Pastor of the Congregational 
Church of Chester, N. J., quotation from, 272. 

Johnson, William, an early settler, 46 ; removed to Eliza- 
beth, N. J., 52. 



INDEX. 341 

Jones, Jeffrey, an early settler, 46 ; removed to Elizabeth, 

N. J., 52. 
Judges of Suffolk County, 324. 

Kepler, Johann. contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 74. 

Ketch, value of, 94. 

Ketchabonnach, first Minister of, a Southold man, 260. 

Ketcham, John, an early settler, sells land to Thomas 
Moore, 38, 46. 

King, John, an early settler, 46. 

King, Samuel, an early settler, 46. 

Kircher, Athanasius, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 74. 

Knyffe, Captain, and others sent by the Dutch to ac- 
cept the submission of the East End, 150, 152. 

Ladder to be ready for use, 91. 

Lamb. Rev. Joseph, in 1717, first Minister of Mattituck, 

(where his wife died), removed to Baskingridge, N. 

J., 241, 278.'" 
Land, who might bu}^ in Southold, 96. 
Landon, Francis, residence of, on the site of Col. Arnold's 

dwelling, 93. 
Landon, Jared, one of the first Board of Church Trustees, 

230. 
Laws of New York respeCling church property, 225-229; 

of Southold made by and for a virtuous and thrifty 

people. 95. 
Lester, Col. Thomas S., residence of, on the original 

Calves Neck, 89. 
L'Hommedieu, Hon. Ezra, sketch of, 227-230. 
Lightfoot, John, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 76. 
Lincoln, Hon. Solomon, historian of Hingham, Mass., 

letter of, 172-174. 
Lloyd, James, and his descendants. 293, 294. 
Locke, John, contemporary with Rev. Joshua Hobart, 

196. 
London, great plague and fire in, 195. 
Long Parliament met two weeks after the organization 

of the Southold Church, 78. 
Lord, Hon. Frederick W., M. D., 270. 
Lost art. to make vice and crime pay their expenses, 92^ 



342 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Lovelace, Gov. Francis, charadler and administration of, 
139; burns the protests of Southold, Southampton 
and Easthampton, 140. 

Mackemie, Rev. Francis, Presbyterian Minister, perse- 
cuted by Lord Cornbury, 239. 

Manning, Captain, surrenders New York, 141, 

Mapes, Thomas, an early settler, 31, 32 ; site of his home- 
lot, 85 ; appointed to lay out Calves Neck, 91. 

Mather, Rev. Nathaniel, Pastor of Aquebogue, 241. 

Mattituck, purchase from the Indians of, 202 ; reasons 
for the organization of the Church of, 240-242; first 
Pastor of, 241 ; Church of, admitted to the Presby- 
tery of Long Island, 278. 

Mayflower, intended place of settlement of the passen- 
gers in the, 252. 

Meacham, Jeremiah, an early settler, 46; removed to 
Easthampton and prominent there, 49. 

Meeting House, first, a substantial building, site and uses 
of, 123, 124; hallowed associations of, 125; former 
congregations of, 126; second, 124; first, made in 
1684 a county prison, 213, 282; four cedar windows 
of the new, sold, 213; date of the building of the 
second, 214; sites of the first, second, third and 
fourth, 217; a "flatter roof" in 171 1 put on the 
third, 240. 

Metcalf, Stephen, an early settler, 46. 

Migration from Southold, 271. 

Military precautions and defences, 108. 

Mill on Hallock's Neck, 91. 

Miller, Andrew, delegate from Brook Haven to confer 
with the Dutch conquerors, 146. 

Miller, George, an early settler, 46; removed to East- 
hampton, a chief man there, 49. 

Milton, John, pupil of the Rev. Thomas Young, 22 ; con- 
temporary with the founders of Southold, 74; died 
in the year of the Rev. Joshua Hobart's ordination, 
196. 

Moore, Benjamin, a nearly settler, 46; bought the land 
on which the Case house now stands, 85. 

Moore, Charles B., Esq., author of the invaluable "In- 
dexes of Southold," 19, et al. 

Moore, Jonathan, an early settler, 46. 

Moore, Nathaniel, an early settler, 46. 



INDEX. 343 

Moore, Thomas, an early settler, 46 ; site of his home- 
lot, 85; in 1673 appointed magistrate of Southold 
by the Dutch, 149; declined the office, 157. 

Moriches, first Church of, organized, and first Minister 
of, a Southold man, 260. 

Morris county, N. J., migration to, 272. 

Muirson, Dr. George, and his kindred, 300-311. 

Nantes, eftedl of the revocation of the edidl of, 195. 
Navigation in the early times of Southold, ']'] . 
Newark, N. J., settlement of, 69-71. 
New England at the close of its first generation, 196. 
New Haven in August, 1640. purchased the Indian title 

of Southold, 36; settlement of, 38; purchased in 

1640 lands on the Delaware, 41 ; constitution of the 

Jurisdidlion of, 66-68. 
Newton, Capt. Bryan and his wife Elsie, 253. 
Newtown, L. I., Rev. Simon Horton, Pastor of, 264; 

Church of, ruined by the British. 265. 
New Year's Day, 25th of March, old style, 179, 
Nicholl, William, 323-326. 
Nichols, Francis, an early settler, 46. 
Nicholls, Col. Richard, takes possession of New York 

and Long Island for the Duke of York, 132; char- 

acfler and administration of, 138, 139. 
Norton, Humphrey, early in Southold, 46; punished tor 

disturbing the peace thereof, 103-105. 

Oldest Town on Long Island. 40, 41. 

Orange county, N. Y., migration to, 272. 

Orient, land in, given in 1718 by David Youngs for the 
site of a Meeting House and reasons for building the 
edifice which was erected in the following years, 
240-242, 277. 

Osman, Thomas, an early settler, 46. 

Overton, Isaac, an early settler, 46. 

Overton, Rev. Stephen, Pastor of Chester, N, J., 276. 

Owen, John, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 76. 

Paine, John, an early settler, 47. 
Paine, Peter, an early settler, 47. 
Paine, widow, came to Salem, 24. 
Parents* honor due to, 109. 



344 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Parishes, Province of New York divided into, and 
churches to be built in, 236. 

Parish lands of Southold, division of, 280, 

Part I., 14-164; II., 165-245; III.. 247-282; IV., 283-327. 

Pascal, Blaise, contemporary with the founders of South- 
old, 74. 

Patent for the Town, 199-207. 

Patentees of the Town, 200, 201. 

Patentees' Deed, 207, 208. 

Peace, treaty of, at Westminster between Dutch and 
English, 160. 

Peakim, John, an early settler. 47. 

People of the Town increase, 240. 

Perkins, Rev. Dr. William, charatler of the writings of, 
117; Rev. John Youngs's copy of the works of, 1 18. 

Peters, Rev. Hugh, inventor of the imaginary "Blue 
Laws of Connecflicut," 63. 

Peters, Richard L., residence of. Col. John Youngs's 
former home. Sy. 

Petition of Southold to Col. Richard Nicholls, 133-135. 

Petty, Edward, an early settler, 47; bequeaths his chil- 
dren. 94. 

Phillips, G. Wells, owns tiie site voted in 1679 for a Wind 
Mill. 93. 

Pierson, Rev. Abraham, first Pastor of Southampton, 
remov'cd, and settled Branford, Conn., and subse- 
quently Newark, X. J., 58. 

Pierson. Henry, Clerk of the East Riding of Yorkshire 
on Long Island, 115. 116. 

Planters in New Haven, Southold, Southampton, etc., 
before the organization of their respecflive churches, 
38. 

Piatt, Isaac, delegate from Huntington to confer with 
the Dutch conquerors, 146. 

Pomeroy, Rev^ Samuel, preceded Rev. Simon Horton at 
Newton, L. I., 264. 

Pope, Alexander, 244. 

Population and wealth east and west of Thomas Bene- 
di(ft's creek, 180, r8i. 

Post office in Southold on the original home-lot of John 
Budd, 84. 

Presbyter}' of Long Island organized April 17th, 1717, at 
Southampton, 278. 

Price, George James, owner of Dosoris, 290. 



INDEX. 



345 



Prices of produce in early years of Southold, 94. 
Prime, Rev. Dr. Nathaniel S., historian of Long Island, 

statement of, that " Southold was the first Town 

settled on Long Island," 40. 
Prison for Suffolk county made of the first Meeting 

House of Southold, 213. 
Progress, hindrances to beneficent, 98. 
Property, distribution of, to heirs by law formerly in 

Southold, 106. 
Property of Churches, laws of the State respecting' 

225-229. 
Provincial Governors, 323. 
Prudhon, famous saying of, 62. 
Pew for Capt. Youngs and Mr. Isaac Arnold, 212. 
Purchase of the Rev. Joshua Hobart's house by the 

Town for a parsonage, 233-235. 
Puritans conferred civil and religious liberty, 66. 
Purrier, William, an early settler, father-in-law of 

Thomas Mapes, 31, 47. 

Queen Anne, instruflions of, to her cousin. Lord Corn- 
bury, 235. 

Racket, John, an early settler, 47. 

Rainsforcl, Mary, second wife of Pastor Hobart, 173-176. 

Ray nor, Joseph, delegate from Southampton to confer 

with the Dutch conquerors, 146. 
Recorders, Wiliiani Wells, Richard Terry, Benjamin 

Youngs, 199. 
Records of Southold begin with 1651, earliest lost, 83; 

make known the life of the place, 90 ; what must be 

entered in, 90, 105. 
Reeve, Rev. Abner, sketch of, 259-262, 
Reeve, Rev. Ezra, sketch of, 261. 
Reeve, James, an early settler, 47 ; gave in 171 5 land for 

a Meeting House and Burying Ground in Mattituck, 

241. 
Reeve, Judge Tapping, sketch of, 261-263, 
Reeve, Thomas, father of Rev. Abner Reeve, 259, 
Reeves, Hon, Henry A„ statement of. that Southold is 

the oldest town on Long Island, 42,43, 
Religion the chief purpose of the settlers of Southold 

generally, 56, 
Reydon, Suffolk county, England, village, chapel and 



34^ HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

vicarage of, 22; Rev. Christopher Young, vicar of» 

and Rev. John Goldsmith, his successor, 23 ; Rev. 

John Youngs probabh' connecfled with, 24. 
Rich men perpetuate their names, 222, 223. 
Rider, John, an early settler, 47. 
Rider, Thomas, an early settler, 47. 
Rights, bill of. 100; of all carefully regarded in Southold, 

212. 
Riverhead becomes the county seat, 282. 
Robertson, Thomas, 253. 
Robinson, William, an early settler, 47. 
Rubens, Peter Paul, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 75. 

Saint Margaret's of Southolt, Suffolk, England, 19; 

Rev. John Youngs not an incumbent of, 20; St. 

Margaret's, of Ilketshall, 22 ; of Reydon. 22. 
Salem, New England, Rev. John Youngs desired to pass 

to, 18; he and others in, and lands voted them, 24. 
Salisbury, Evan, an earlv settler, 47 ; removed to Eliza- 
beth, N. J., 52. 
Salisbury, Sylvester, received the return of Southold 

from the government of Conne(flicut to that of the 

Duke of York, 193, 194. 
Salmon, John, an early settler, 47. 
Salmon, William, an earlv settler, married the widow of 

Matthew Sundeiland, 37, 47. 
Savings Bank of Southold on the original home lot of 

John Budd, 84. 
Scudder, Henry, an early settler, 47. 
Scudder, Thomas, an early settler, 47. 
Seating the Meeting House, 91, 213, 240. 
Second Pastor to be obtained. 177. 
Selden, John, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 75. 
Selectmen, names of the first mentioned, 96. 
Settlement of Southold at a time of great progress, 75 ; 

of the Rev. Joshua Hobart, 178-180, 
Settlers in Southold here in 1639, how many unknown, 

38 ; did not claim that the saints should rule the 

earth, 62 ; would maintain their liberty, 64 ; blamed 

by the unjust, 65. 
Seward, Hon. William H., and his kindred of Southold 

ancestry, 55. 



INDEX. 



347 



Sexton, first, Richard Benjamin, site of his dwelling, 85. 
Shakespeare, William, contemporary with the founders 

of Southold, 74. 
Shell lime, 242. 
Shelter Island set off from Southold and made a Town, 

324 ; first Town Meeting, citizens of, at the time, 
324; officers first eleded, 325 : first Meeting House, 

325 ; congregation incorporated and church formed, 

325- 

Sheriffs, 324. 

Skidmore, Richard, an early settler, 47. 

Skidmore, Thomas, delegate from Huntington to confer 
with the Dutch conquerors. 146. 

Smith, Chief Justice William, and his kindred, 300-311. 

Smithtown, first resident Minister in, a Southold man, 
260. 

Smyth, Nathaniel, an early settler, 47. 

Smyth, Robert, an early settler. 47. 

Society for Propagating Christian Kncjwledge sent Rev. 
Azariah Horton to the Indians, 267. 

Southampton, settled later than Southold, 42 ; preferred 
Connecticut to New Haven, 58 ; boundaries adjusted, 
94; preferred Connecticut's government to the Duke 
of York's, 133. 

Southard. Henry, and his son, Samuel L., 279. 

Southold, probably named from Southould, now South- 
wold, Suffolk county, England, 25 ; purchased and 
settled by New Haven, 25 ; Rev. John Youngs on 
the 2ist of Otlober, 1640, gathers his church anew 
in, 25; Indian name of, Yennecock, 25; planters of, 
united with New Haven, 26; were on the ground 
many months before OcTfober 21, 1640, and some of 
them perhaps two years previous, 39 ; oldest Long 
Island Town, 36-43; Indian name of, 25, 43; early 
settlers of, 44-48 ; rights and purposes of the found- 
ers, 56-60 ; they did not claim that the saints should 
rule the earth. 62 ; what they desired, 63-68 ; why 
they came, in 1662, under the jurisdiflion of Connec- 
ticut, 71 ; wh}^ they made the Bible their chief code, 
72 ; events of the time of the settlement, 72-78 ; 
planting of, a time of great literary and artistic 
progress and excellence, 74-76 ; in an age full of en- 
terprise, ']6\ at the beginning of the British empire 
in India, 'j'j \ spirit of the English people at that 



348 



HISTORY OF SOUTPTOLD. 



time, T] ; the Town's early care for its prosperity, 
8i ; the site intelligently chosen, 8i ; advantages of 
the site, 82 ; description of the early settlement, 
82-87; knowledge of its history from 1639 to 1651 
fragmentary, 90; early laws of, 91-93; intrusion in- 
to, needless, 97 ; knowledge and other advantages 
of its Bihlical code, especially the mildness of its 
criminal laws, 99; required public records, 100; 
inade provision for education and scriptural worship, 
101-103; its military precautions and defenses, 108. 
109 ; site of its Meeting House and Burying Ground, 
123-126; under the New Haven jurisdi(n:ion twenty- 
two years, 130; then accepted the government of 
Conne(flicut, 131 ; dissatisfied with the government 
of the Duke of York, 133; its whale fishing, 142. 
143; declines fidelity to the Dutch. 151, 157; life 
and works of its early settlers. 161 ; their property 
and employments, 162 ; tax payers of 1675. 184-186 ; 
wealthy men, 187; claims in November. 1674, to be 
under the government of Connecticut and appoints 
Rev. Joshua Hobart and Mr. Thomas Hutchinson 
with full power, 191, 192; last vain effort of, for 
union with Conneclicut, 195 ; its Indian deed, 202 - 
204; its patejit, 204-207; deed of confirmation, 207- 
208; its commoners, 208-211 ; tax payers of 1683, 
217-220; purchase of land for the minister or minis- 
ters, 223-225 ; its first Church Trustees. 225-232; its 
purchase of the Rev. Joshua Hobart's farm, 233- 
235; sends forth settlers of other places. 271-277; 
multiplies churches, 277-280; divides parish lands, 
280; produces worthy men, 227-232, 257-299. 

Southolt. England, description of. 20-22. 

Southwold. England, description of, 23, 24. 

Stearns, Rev. Dr. Jonathan F., statement of, in his "His- 
tory of the First Church of Newark, N. J.." 70, 71. 

Steenwyck, Cornelius, and other Dutch commissioners 
sent to Southold, 153-157. 

Stevenson, Edward, an early settler, 47. 

Stevenson, Thomas, an earl}^ settler, removed by way of 
Hempstead to Newtown, L. 1., 51. 

Stiles, Rev. Dr. Ezra, President of Yale College, many-. 
script of, respecting the Hobarts, 173-176. 

Stirling Creek, 270, 



INDEX. 349 

Sturgis, Richard S., residence of, on the original home 
lot of Richard Benjamin, 198. 

Style, change of," from old to new, 179. 

Suffolk county formed in 1683 and court house built in 
Riverhead some forty-four years later, 282,,' 

Sunderland, Matthew, on the i8th of June, 1639, rented 
land in Southold, and cultivated it, paying rent in 
September, 1639, and in the next September, 36, 37. 

Supervisors, 327. 

Surinam exchanged for New York, 160. 

Surrogates, 324. 

Swan, Rev, Benjamin L., hospitality of, 289. 

Sweeping the Meeting House, bill for, 233. 

Swezey, John, an early settler, 47 ; ancestor of the Hon. 
William H. Seward and others, 55. 

Swezey, Rev. Samuel, pastor at Chester. N. J., 275, 276. 

Sylvester, Joshua, an early settler, 47. 

Sylvester, Capt. Nathaniel, of Shelter Island, hospital- 
ity of, 154, 155. 

Tax lists, 184-187. 217-220. 

Taxes, how assessed and paid, 95. 

Taylor, Jeremy, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 76. 
Taylor, John and wife, 257. 
Terrell, Thomas, an early settler, 47. 
Terry, Daniel, an early settler, 47. 
Terry, Hiram J., residence of, on the original home lot 

of Philemon Dickerson, 85. 
Terry, John, an early settler, 47. 
Terry, Jonathan B., wharf of, 91. 
Terry, Richard, an early settler, 47 ; Recorder, 199. 
Terry, Stuart T., residence of, 156. 
Terry, Thomas, an early settler, 47 , site of his home lot 

south of Barnabas Wines's. where Patrick May 

now lives, 85 ; came in 1635 with his brothers 

Robert and Richard from England, 30. 
Thirty years' war, 73. 

Thompson, Benjamin F., statement of, 26. 
Thompson, Martin E., courtesy of, 290; death of, 292. 
Throop, Rev. William, fifth pastor of Southold, sermons 

of, 260, 326. 
Tillotson. John, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 76. 

30 



350 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

Town Patent, 204-206. 

Torricelli, Evangelista, contemporary with the founders 
of Southold, 74. 

Towns of Long Island ordered to send deputies to 
Hempstead, 133 ; accepted the Duke of York's laws 
and became part of his Yorkshire, 135; pass from 
his government to Connedicut, but find it necessa- 
ry to return, 193. 

Training, watching and warding. 197. 

Treadwell. Edward, an early settler, 47. 

Trinity Church, New York, 236, 237. 

Trowbridge, Thomas R., presented the Rev. John 
Youngs's copy of Perkins's Works lo the New 
Haven Colonv Historical Society, 118. 

Trustees of the First Church, 225-232. 

Tucker, Charles an early settler. 47. 

Tucker, Johii, an early settler. 47; site of his residence, 
whence the name of " Tucker's Lane." before he re- 
moved to Brook Haven, 50. 

Turks invading Europe in the early years of Southold, 

195- 
Turner, Daniel, an early settler, 47. 

Tustin, Thomas, an early settler, 47. 

Tuthill, " Family Meeting" pamphlet, 30. 

Tuthill, Henrv, an early settler, 30, 47; ancestor of all 
Southold's Tuthills,'266. 

Tuthill, Ira Hull, Esq., residence of, on one of the origi- 
nal home lots of Barnabas Horton, 84. 

Tuthill, John, an early settler, 47 ; in 1642 chief officer 
of Southold, 266. ' 

Tuthill, John, Jr., an early settler, 47. 

Underbill, Capt. John, an early settler of Southold, 47 ; 

letter of, from Southold, to Gov. Winthrop, 51 ; site 

of his dwelling, 85. 
United Colonies of New England formed for religion and 

liberty, 66 ; in 1673 claim the East End towns, 149. 
Ussher, James, contemporary with the founders of 

Southold, 74. 

Vail, Jeremiah, an early settler, 47. 
Vail, Jeremiah, Jr., an early settler, 47. 
Van Dyke, Antony, contemporary with the founders of 
Southold, 75. 



INDEX. 351 

" Varment," premium for killing, 95. 

Vassel, Margaret, first wife of the Rev. Joshua Hobart, 

173-176. 
Vesey, Rev. William, first Minister of Trinity Church, 

New York, 236. 
Vessel, value of, 94. 
Villefeu, Rene, wind mill of, burnt, 94. 

Wading River village at first named West Hold. 44. 

Wangford. England, Hundred and Village of, 22, 23. 

Watts, Rev. Dr. Isaac, 244. 

Way, Daniel, husband of Irene Hobart, 245, 

Wealthy men of 1675 and of 1683 shown by the tax lists, 
184-187, 217-220. 

Weatherby, Thomas, bought, October 25, 1640, the house 
and land of Richard Jackson, 37. 

Welles, Rev. William, Prebendary of Norwich Cathe- 
dral, ancestor of Southold's Wellses, 28. 

Wells, William, an early settler, 28, 47 ; Clerk and Re- 
corder of the Town, 52, 53 ; site of his home lot, 
84; Sele6lman, 96; Sheriff of Yorkshire on Long 
Island, 113; death of, 113; place of his grave, 118; 
piclure of his tomb-stone, 120 ; beautiful Genealogy 
of, by the Rev. Charles Wells Hayes, and quotation 
from it, 121 ; delegate from Southold to the Duke of 
York's convention at Hempstead, 133, 136. 

Wells, Freegift, Deacon, presided at the first eledion of 
Trustees of the First Church and elecfled one of 
them, 230, 231. 

Wells. Joshua, bill of, for carting timber for Meeting 
House gallery, 233. 

Wells, William H., repaired the tomb-stone of William 
Wells, 121. 

West Hold, the original name of Wading River village, 
44. 

Whitney, Henry, an early settler, 47. 

Whittier, Thomas, an early settler, 47. 

Wickham Market, 21. 

Wiggins, Abraham, an early settler, 47. 

Wiggins, John, an early settler, 47. 

Wind Mill, site for at Pine Neck, 93. 

Wines, Rev. Dr. /bijah, native of Southold, first Pro- 
fessor of Theology in Bangor Seminary, 53, 54. 

Wines, Deacon Barnabas, an early settler, 47 ; descen- 



352 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD. 

dants of, 53; site of his home lot, 85 ; appraiser of 
the estate of the Rev. John Youngs, 115, 116; freed 
from training, watching and warding, 197. 

Wines, Barnabas, Jr., an early settler, 47 ; removed to 
Elizabeth, N. J., 52 

Wines, Rev. Dr. Enoch Cobb, descendant of Deacon 
Barnabas Wines, 54 ; letter of, 55. 

Wines, Samuel, an early settler, 47. 

Winthrop, John, Jr., Governor, obtains the patent for 
ConnecTlicut, 68. 

Wood, Hon. Silas, erroneous statement of. respecfling 
the settlement of Southold, 40. 

Woodhull, Rev. Nathan. Pastor of Newtown, L. I., 265. 

WoodhuU, Richard, delegate from Brook Haven to con- 
fer with the Dutch conquerors, 146. 

Woolsey, Rev. Benjamin, great-grandfather of the third 
pastor of Southold, 250. 

Woolsey, Rev. Benjamin, ancestors of, 249-255 ; birth 
of, 256 ; graduated at Yale, 256; his marriage, 257; 
his ministry in ditferent places, 257, 258; his auto- 
graph, 259;' fruits of his ministry, 259-271, 281, 282; 
removed to Dosoiis, 285 ; subsequent ministry, 287 ; 
his death, 288; his chara(fler, 288, 289; place of his 
burial, 291 ; inscription on his tomb-stone, 292; his 
descendants, 293-313; eminent descendants of his 
daughters, 313. 

Woolsey, Benjamin, son of pastor Woolsey, and his 
kindred, 299-311. 

Woolsey, Benjamin, grandson of Pastor Woolsey, 302. 

Woolsey, George, grandfather of Southold's third pas- 
tor, 249-251 ; marriage of to Rebecca Cornell, 253; 
fire warden of New York ; land owner of Jamaica, 
patentee of that place, Town Clerk, 254; his death, 
will and bequests, 254. 

Woolsey, George, father of Southold's third pastor, 
birth and baptism of, 253 ; his wife Hannah and their 
sons George and Benjamin, 255 ; his death and 
grave, 256. 

Woolsey, George, brother of Southold's third pastor, 
settled in Pennington, New Jersey, founder of the 
family there, 255, 256. 

Woolsey,'George Muirson, grandson of Pastor Woolsey, 
and his descendants, 309-311. 

Woolsey, Melancflhon Lloyd, and his kindred, 296-298. 



INDEX* 353 

Woolsey, Col. Melanahon Taylor, and his kindred, 

293-295. J u- 1 • 

Woolsey, Commodore Melanahon Taylor, and his kin- 
dred, 298-299. ^ T^ • J X r 

Woolsey, Theodore Dwight. I). D., LL. D., President ol 
Yale College, and his descendants, 307, 308. 

Woolsey, William Walton, grandson of Pastor Woolsey, 
and' his descendants, 303-309. 

Worlingworth and Southolt. letter of the Reverend Rec- 
tor of, 21. , • u 4. 

Worship, public, disturbance of, 104; and punishment 
of the disturber, 105. 

Yale College, early graduates of, 240, 241. 

Yarmouth, England. Rev. John Youngs desired vvith 
his family to emigrate from, 18; his passage forbid- 
den, 19. 24; most eastern part of England, 25; de- 
scription of, 249, 250. 

Yennecock or Yennecott, Indian name ot bouthold, 43. 

York, Duke of, charaaer and life of, 136-138. 

Yorkshire on Long Island, 88, 89. 

Youngs, Anne, daughter ot the Rev. John, 18. 

Youngs, Benjamin, son of the Rev. John and Recorder 
of the Town, grave of, 118; witness of the Indian 
Deed, 204. 

Youngs, Christopher, son of the Rev. John, 48. 

Youngs, David, in -718 gave land in Orient for the site 
of a Meeting House, 241, 277. 

Youngs. Rev. David, sketch of, 270, 271. 

Youngs, Gideon, son of the Rev. John, 48. 

Youngs, Rev. James, Pastor at Chester, N. J., 275,276. 

Youngs, Joan, wife of the Rev. John, 18. , . , 

Youngs, Rev. [ohn, of St. Margaret's, Suffolk, desired 
with his familv to pass to New England, 18 ; he was 
forbidden, 18 fnot an Incumbent of St. Margaret s, 
Southolt in Suffolk, 20; moved from Salem to New 
Haven, 24; said to have been the minister of a 
church in Hingham, England, 25: gathered his 
church anew, Oa. 21, 1640, in Southold, 25; fixed 
his residence in this place, 26 ; dwelt here before the 
purchase in August, 1640, of the Indian title, 39; 
many descendants of, influential and eminent, 52 ; his 
name first on the Town Records, 84; site of his 
home, 84; his possessions, 112; his death, 113; his 



354 HISTORY OF SOUTHOLt). 

grave and the inscription on his tomb-stone, 114; in- 
ventory and administration of his estate, 115, 116; 
names of his children, 117 ; theology of himself, his 
church, and his successors, 117, 118; his copy of 
Perkins's works, 118 ; place of his long sleep in the 
midst of his people, 118; hisfamily probably came 
to America with the widow and children of the Rev. 
Dr. William Ames, 250, 251. 

Youngs, John, Captain, Colonel, Judge, eldest son of the 
first Pastor, 18; an original settler, 47; his charac- 
ter and life, 87 ; his dwelling now a good one more 
than two hundred years old, S7 ; the foremost man 
on Long Island in the second generation, sketch of 
his life, 87-89; his death, 87; his grave, 118, 242; 
appointed to obtain an honest godly man to be his 
father's successor, 177 ; authorized to have a pew in 
the Meeting House, 212 , his tomb-stone, 242. 

Youngs. John, mariner, permitted to build a wharf, 93, 

Youngs, John, Governor of the State of \ew York, a 
descendant of the eldest son of Southold's first 
Pastor, 52. 

Youngs. Joseph, son of the Rew John, 47. 

Youngs. Jose})h, mariner, an early settler, 48 ; notice of, 
86. 

Youngs. Judge [oshua, 269. 

Youngs. Mary, wife, widow and administratrix of Rev. 
Jcjhn, 1 16. 

Youngs. Mar3% daughter of Rev. John. 18. 

Youngs, Rachel, daughter of Rev John, 18. 

Youngs, Samuel, son of Rev. John, 47. 

Younjj:, Rev. Thomas, Re(f\or of Stow Market and teach- 
er of John Milton, 22. 

Youngs, Thomas, son of Rev. John, an early settler, re- 
moved to Elizabeth, N. J., 18, 47, 52. 

Y'oungs. Judge Thomas, allowed the certificate of the 
elecflion of the first Trustees of the First Church 
to be recorded, 231 ; sketch of his chara^ler and 
life, 269, 270. 

Youngs, Zerubbabel, son of Col. John, father of Judge 
Joshua, who was the father of Judge Thomas, 270. 









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